Building a Community History of Biotech in the Bay Area

• In Event: Research Infrastructures, Digital Tools and New Directions in STS Research

Abstract

Biotechnology is forged through interconnected actors, ideas, and institutions. Many stories have been told from the field, but none that capture the complex exchange between bodies and materials that constitute a community. This paper presentation outlines a new research project on the emergent history of biotechnology in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Community History of Biotech project is an attempt to archive and map a relational system of narratives, artifacts, and information using digital tools that bring together members of this historic community with interested publics and rigorous scholarship. Elements of this digital platform will include collections of individual and collective oral histories, mediated discussion spaces that convene groups around narratives and material artifacts, research tools for scholars to track, visualize, and expand upon archival materials, and live events that curate interaction between community members and public audiences. Of course, any attempt to comprehend such vast empirical terrain cannot shy away from methodological concerns: the organizational, interpretive, and ethical dimensions of a living archive requires critical reflection and appropriate response. Our intention in making a community history of this scale is to invite our own community of scholars to engage the use of digital research platforms, to challenge the bounds of historical scholarship, and to reflect on new methods of analysis.

Author

• Joseph Klett, Science History Institute