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

该项目通过考虑性别如何在体制层面上作为二元、生物和不同于性别的方式再现，研究生物差异如何通过纳入生物医学的监管再现。它通过研究美国国立卫生研究院新政策任务的出现来做到这一点。这些政策被称为“性别作为一个生物变量”，要求在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。虽然学者们已经表明，生物知识的产生是由科学研究人员的假设形成的，但对政府机构和监管程序在复制某些形式的生物差异方面的作用知之甚少。使用档案数据和其他文本材料，以及与利益相关者的访谈，本项目研究的过程中，美国国立卫生研究院制定的政策，要求在基础和临床前研究的性别差异的检查。总的目标是表明如何通过条例和规则的制定使关于性和性别的具体说明制度化。这是一个多方法的调查体现差异，知识，机构和规则制定的方式，以产生性和性别作为不同类别的人格。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授权，要求在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，以了解生物差异如何被构建为科学和医学调查的对象，而这些科学和医学调查的对象是由某些被授予知识生产者合法性的专家所知的，而其他账户则被拒绝机构支持。在这样做的过程中，它推动了关于性别角色和监管干预措施的交叉以及关于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的发展。总的来说，该项目旨在解释某些形式的差异是如何被假定为生物学的，并在研究政策中享有特权，并研究位于NIH之外的参与者和组织如何影响或试图影响这些政策。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

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.