Forming the Bioterrorism 'Bandwagon'
University of Murdoch, Australia - This seminar will address the Implications of bioterrorism for the BioSciences and Disarmament
A Public Lecture presented by Dr Susan Wright.
In the United States, the possibility that terrorists would arm themselves with biological weapons was widely seen as a huge threat to national security by the end of the Clinton administration. That the nation should invest billions of dollars in a new form of civilian bio-defense was accepted by the President and eventually on a bipartisan basis by the U.S. Congress, despite informed dissent inside and outside the administration. This seminar will address how this linkage was forged, how it was used to justify a radical reframing of biological knowledge in terms of military goals, and the policy implications of this major reorientation of the biological sciences.
Susan Wright, an historian of science at the University of Michigan, received a B.A. in physics from Oxford University, an M.S. in physics from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in history of science from Harvard University. Her research and writing has focused on the history and politics of biotechnology, and the development of military dimensions of this field. Her books include Molecular Politics: Developing American and British Regulatory Policy for Genetic Engineering, 1972-1982 (University of Chicago Press, 1994), Preventing a Biological Arms Race (MIT Press, 1990), and Biological Warfare and Disarmament: New Problems/New Perspectives (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002). She is currently a Visiting Professorial Fellow in the School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication at the University of Wollongong where she is directing a research project, Gender and Security: Bridging the Gulf between Theory and Practice, and continuing research on the formation of U.S. counter-bioterrorism policy.
Please RSVP to [email protected] or 9360 2263 by Monday 28th May
