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Examining the Exceptional: Case Studies of Knowledge Production in Biomedicine and Science

Thu, November 12, 10:30am to 12:00pm, Denver Sheraton, Plaza Ballroom D

Session Submission Type: Paper Session

Abstract

Scientific knowledge and expertise, globally, carry exceptional weight in the determination of human affairs. This panel examines discourses and practices within the human and medical sciences that delineate what is exceptional, and what is mundane. It asks how certain exceptional subjects or objects of study are made to stand in for the common, basic, or average while others are endowed with great epistemic weight as an ideal type or paragon. The exceptional is an important analytical tool: it facilitates a sense of novelty and discovery, it highlights fundamental characteristics through their exaggeration or absence, and it makes a persuasive argument for a particular interpretation. Certain kinds of knowledge and certain knowledge-holders are made possible, probable, or authoritative based on key examples. Exceptional research subjects provide data for theories of “the human”. Exceptional pathologies or bodily states reveal the underlying definitions of “health” and exceptional practitioners help create an understanding of the “normal”. Paying attention to the construction of the exceptional in contrast to the ordinary highlights important asymmetrical power dynamics in these categories and their utility for political projects. Moreover, upon further exploration, we can trace the “cyclical histories and repertoires” of knowledge production that are intrinsic in this construction. Collectively, these papers explore the gendered and racialized understandings of the exceptional as a way to analyze normative scientific and medical practice.

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