Joanna Radin, PhD
Research & Publications
Biography
News
Research Summary
My book, Life on Ice: A History of New Uses for Cold Blood (University of Chicago Press, 2017) tracks Cold War efforts to freeze blood salvaged from members of indigenous communities. This project, which helps to explain the current phenomenon of biobanking, focuses on ideas about human life science and practices of salvage. The broader role of freezing technologies in modern society is explored in the co-authored (with Emma Kowal) book, Cryopolitics: Frozen Life in a Melting World (MIT University Press, 2017).
These lines of investigation are part of a bigger research program on "biomedical futures," a historical and anthropological inquiry into how visions of the future shape the emergence of biomedicine in the present. This has included research on the history of "big data," of science and colonialism, of patronage for the human sciences, and of the relationship between science fiction and scientific speculation.
Specialized Terms: Global histories of biology, ecology, medicine, and anthropology since 1945; history and anthropology of life and death; biomedical technology and computing; feminist, Indigenous, and queer STS; science fiction
Research Interests
Bioethics; Death; Epidemiology; Ethics; Expeditions; History of Medicine; Medicine in Literature; Global Health; Cryopreservation; Biomedical Technology; Infectious Disease Medicine
Selected Publications
- Alternative Facts and States of Fear: Reality and STS in an Age of Climate FictionsRadin J. Alternative Facts and States of Fear: Reality and STS in an Age of Climate Fictions. Minerva 2019, 57: 411-431. DOI: 10.1007/s11024-019-09374-5.
- Ethics in Human Biology: A Historical Perspective on Present ChallengesRadin J. Ethics in Human Biology: A Historical Perspective on Present Challenges. Annual Review Of Anthropology 2018, 47: 263-278. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-anthro-102317-045922.
- ’Digital Natives’: How Medical and Indigenous History Matter For Big DataJoanna Radin (2017) Osiris.
- Life on Ice: A History of New Uses for Cold BloodJoanna Radin (2017) Chicago: University of Chicago Press
- Cryopolitics: Frozen Life in a Melting WorldJoanna Radin and Emma Kowal (eds) Cambridge: MIT University Press, 2017
- Collections d’échantillons biologiques autochtones et cryopolitique de la vie congeléeKowal E, Radin J. Collections d’échantillons biologiques autochtones et cryopolitique de la vie congelée. Les Actes De Colloques Du Musée Du Quai Branly 2016 DOI: 10.4000/actesbranly.660.
- Patrons of the Human Experience: A History of The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological ResearchSusan Lindee and Joanna Radin. (2016) Current Anthropology, 57(S14): S218-S301.
- Indigenous blood and ethical regimes in the United States and Australia since the 1960sRADIN J, KOWAL E. Indigenous blood and ethical regimes in the United States and Australia since the 1960s. American Ethnologist 2015, 42: 749-765. DOI: 10.1111/amet.12168.
- Indigenous biospecimen collections and the cryopolitics of frozen lifeKowal E, Radin J. Indigenous biospecimen collections and the cryopolitics of frozen life. Journal Of Sociology 2015, 51: 63-80. DOI: 10.1177/1440783314562316.
- “Indigenous Blood and Ethical Regimes in the United States and Australia Since the 1960s.”Joanna Radin and Emma Kowal. (2015) American Ethnologist, 42(4): 749-765.
- “Planned Hindsight: The Vital Valuations of Frozen Tissue at the Zoo and Natural History Museum”Joanna Radin. (2015) Journal of Cultural Economy. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2015.1039458
- Human Genome Diversity Project: HistoryRadin J. Human Genome Diversity Project: History. 2015, 306-310. DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.82037-1.
- Unfolding epidemiological stories: How the WHO made frozen blood into a flexible resource for the futureRadin J. Unfolding epidemiological stories: How the WHO made frozen blood into a flexible resource for the future. Studies In History And Philosophy Of Science Part A 2014, 47: 62-73. PMID: 25066899, DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2014.05.007.
- “Collecting Human Subjects,” part of special issue, “Archiving Anthropos: The Ethics of Collections in History and Anthropology"Joanna Radin. (2014) Curator 57(2), co-edited with Ann Kakaliouras
- Indigenous body parts, mutating temporalities, and the half-lives of postcolonial technoscienceKowal E, Radin J, Reardon J. Indigenous body parts, mutating temporalities, and the half-lives of postcolonial technoscience. Social Studies Of Science 2013, 43: 465-483. DOI: 10.1177/0306312713490843.
- Latent life: Concepts and practices of human tissue preservation in the International Biological ProgramRadin J. Latent life: Concepts and practices of human tissue preservation in the International Biological Program. Social Studies Of Science 2013, 43: 484-508. DOI: 10.1177/0306312713476131.
- “Studying Mandela’s children: human biology in post-Apartheid South Africa.”“Studying Mandela’s children: human biology in post-Apartheid South Africa” An interview with Noel Cameron, by Joanna Radin. Published as part of “The Biological Anthropology of Living Human Populations: World Histories, National Styles and International Networks” Current Anthropology, 2012, 53(S5).