Abstract

This Forum uses the theme of ‘transbiology’ to draw connections between different ways of reproducing life – in plants, in humans, and in art – and to ask questions about how knowledge of genetics and heredity have changed over time.

‘Transbiology’ refers to all the ways cell biology interacts with external forces, and in particular how processes such as transposition complicate – or ‘queer’ – our understandings of biological relations, causality and complexity.

Two interdisciplinary conversations – on both transposition and the wider themes of ‘quer(y)ing reproduction’ and ‘transbiology’ – bring together researchers from genetics, plant sciences, sociology and history of science to consider how McClintock’s revolutionary idea has resonances that go beyond botany.

The event concludes with a private preview screening of the 10-minute graphic animation Transpositions. Using both figurative and abstract imagery, the film explores the transformation of ideas about reproduction and inheritance over the course of the twentieth century, using Barbara McClintock’s discovery of transposition as a centrepiece to introduce the idea of ‘transbiology’. The screening is followed by a panel discussion with the creative and academic team behind the film, and then a drinks reception.

To find out more and register visit https://www.repro.cam.ac.uk/events/transpositions-cambridge-reproduction-forum

PROGRAMME

15:00    Introduction and welcome

15:15    Interdisciplinary conversation: ‘Crossing over’ in biology (and beyond)

16:00    Tea break

16:30    Interdisciplinary conversation: ‘Quer(y)ing Reproduction and Transbiology’

17:15    Break

17:30    Private preview of the 10 minute film Transpositions

17:45    Interdisciplinary conversation: Transposition on film

18:30    Drinks reception and networking

SPEAKERS Professor Sarah Franklin (Reproductive Sociology Research Group) Professor Ian Henderson (Plant Sciences) Dr Dmitriy Myelnikov (History & Philosophy of Science) Dr Lucy van de Wiel (King’s College London) Professor Staffan Müller-Wille (History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences) Alexandra Dallaire (Future Leader Fellow | Comparative Fungal Biology) Alastair McColl (Animation Director) Lucian M. Stephenson (lgbtq@cam Programme Co-ordinator)