Human classifications: An examination of underlying epistemologies, ambiguities, and politics that reveals how concepts such as race, ethnicity, and ancestry are employed in the life sciences today.

Scientific concepts and segregational politics have long been mixed together in attempts to ordering and classifying people by those in power. The contributors to this volume critically examine bioscientific concepts of human diversity as they are applied across various national contexts and within different life science disciplines, including genetics, medicine, forensics, anthropology, epidemiology, and microbiome research. They unpack the epistemologies, ambiguities, and politics of key classifications such as race, ethnicity, ancestry, and migration background. This results in a multidisciplinary analysis of the complex implications of efforts to capture and categorize biological human variation.

Autorentext

Tino Plümecke ist Soziologe an der Universität Freiburg. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte liegen in den Science and Technology Studies und fokussieren Theorien zu Diskriminierung sowie and Critical Race Studies, insbesondere die Geschichte sowie aktuelle Entwicklungen in der Genetik sowie (Post-)Genomik.

Veronika Lipphardt is a professor of science and technology studies at the University College Freiburg, Germany. She has worked on the history of the life sciences in the 20th century, particularly on the history of physical anthropology and human population genetics in their political, social, and cultural contexts. Recently, her research has focused on forensic DNA analysis and population genetic studies of vulnerable populations.

Andrea zur Nieden (Dr. phil.), Soziologin, ist wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Institut für Geschichte der Medizin an der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf. Sie arbeitet u.a. zur Soziologie und Geschichte der Medizin und des Körpers.