Doctoral Dissertation Research: Reproducing Difference in Biomedicine: The Case of Sex as a Biological Variable

该项目通过考虑如何在机构层面上将性别复制为二元的、生物学的、与性别截然不同的性别，来研究如何通过纳入生物医学的监管来复制生物差异。它通过审查美国国立卫生研究院新的政策任务的出现来做到这一点。这些政策被称为“性别作为生物变量”，要求在由美国国立卫生研究院资助的所有临床前研究中纳入同等数量的男性和女性细胞和动物。虽然学者们已经证明，生物知识的产生是由科学研究人员的假设决定的，但人们对政府机构和监管程序在复制某些形式的生物差异方面所扮演的角色知之甚少。使用档案数据和其他文本材料，以及对利益相关者的采访，该项目检查了NIH制定政策，要求在基础和临床前研究中检查性别差异的过程。总的目标是展示如何通过监管和规则制定使对性和性别的具体说明制度化。这是一项多方法的调查，研究体现差异、知识、制度和规则制定的方式如何产生性别和性别作为不同的人格类别。这项调查背后的具体案例研究是美国国立卫生研究院的一项新政策任务，该任务要求在由NIH资助的所有临床前研究中纳入同等数量的雄性和雌性细胞和动物。该项目综合了来自档案、公共政策文件和与利益攸关方的访谈的数据，以了解生物差异是如何被构建为科学和医学调查的对象的，而某些被授予知识生产者合法性的专家是知道的，而其他账户则被拒绝了机构支持。在这样做的过程中，它推动了关于性别角色和监管干预的交集以及性别意识形态对科学研究人员和医疗从业人员工作的影响的科学和技术研究文献。总体而言，该项目试图解释某些形式的差异是如何在研究政策中被推定为生物学的和特权的，并检查位于NIH之外的行为者和组织如何影响或试图影响这些政策。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project examines how biological differences are reproduced through the regulation of inclusion in biomedicine by considering how sex is reproduced as binary, biological, and distinct from gender at an institutional level. It does so by examining the emergence of a new policy mandate of the US National Institutes of Health. Called 'Sex as a Biological Variable,' these policies require the inclusion of equal numbers of male and female cells and animals in all pre-clinical research funded by the NIH. While scholars have shown that the production of biological knowledge is shaped by the assumptions of scientific researchers, far less is known about the role of government agencies and regulatory processes in reproducing certain forms of biological difference. Using archival data and other textual materials, as well as interviews with stakeholders, this project examines the processes by which the NIH developed policies mandating the examination of sex differences in basic and pre-clinical research. The overall aim is to show how particular accounts of sex and gender become institutionalized through regulation and rule-making. This is a multi-method investigation into the ways in which embodied difference, knowledge, institutions, and rule-making serve to produce sex and gender as distinct categories of personhood. The specific case study underlying this investigation is a new policy mandate at the US National Institutes of Health that requires the inclusion of equal numbers of male and female cells and animals in all pre-clinical research funded by the NIH. The project synthesizes data from archives, public policy documents, and interviews with stakeholders to understand how biological difference comes to be constructed as an object of scientific and medical inquiry that is knowable by certain experts who are granted legitimacy as knowledge-producers, while other accounts are denied institutional support. In doing so it advances literature in science and technology studies on the intersection of gender roles and regulatory interventions and on the influence of gender ideology on the work of scientific researchers and medical practitioners. Overall, the project seeks to explain how certain forms of difference come to be presumed biological and privileged as such within research policy and to examine how actors and organizations located outside of the NIH influence or attempt to influence such policies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.