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

本项目通过考虑性别如何在制度层面上作为二元的、生物的和不同于性别的复制，来研究生物差异是如何通过生物医学的包容性调节来复制的。它通过研究美国国立卫生研究院（nih）新政策授权的出现来做到这一点。这些政策被称为“性别作为一个生物学变量”，要求在NIH资助的所有临床前研究中，包括相同数量的男性和女性细胞和动物。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所塑造的，但人们对政府机构和监管过程在再现某些形式的生物差异方面所起的作用知之甚少。利用档案数据和其他文本材料，以及与利益相关者的访谈，该项目检查了NIH制定政策的过程，这些政策要求检查基础和临床前研究中的性别差异。总体目标是展示关于性和性别的具体描述如何通过监管和规则制定而制度化。这是一项多方法调查，探讨了具体差异、知识、制度和规则制定如何将性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授权，该政策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。该项目综合了来自档案、公共政策文件和对利益攸关方的采访的数据，以了解如何将生物差异构建为科学和医学调查的对象，而某些专家被授予知识生产者的合法性，而其他说法则得不到机构的支持。在此过程中，它推动了科学和技术研究方面的文献，这些研究涉及性别角色与监管干预的交叉以及性别意识形态对科研人员和医疗从业人员工作的影响。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假定为生物学和特权的，并研究NIH以外的参与者和组织如何影响或试图影响这些政策。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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，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.