Experimental Systems and Epistemic Scaffolds in Animal Behavior Genetics
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CAPTURING COMPLEXITY: EXPERIMENTAL SYSTEMS AND EPISTEMIC SCAFFOLDS IN ANIMAL BEHAVIOR GENETICS A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Nicole Christine Nelson May 2011 ©2011 Nicole Christine Nelson CAPTURING COMPLEXITY: EXPERIMENTAL SYSTEMS AND EPISTEMIC SCAFFOLDS IN ANIMAL BEHAVIOR GENETICS Nicole Christine Nelson, Ph. D. Cornell University 2011 This dissertation examines knowledge production practices in the field of animal behavior genetics. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at a laboratory at “Western University” that uses rodents to study the genetics of alcoholism and anxiety, I investigate how practitioners establish experimental systems to model human behavioral disorders in the laboratory and manage the excess of uncertainty that they associate with the “complexity” of behavior. To illuminate the dynamics of knowledge production in animal behavior genetics, I develop the metaphor of an “epistemic scaffold” to describe how practitioners establish and act on the conceptual foundations of particular models or tests. The image of a scaffold highlights two different processes taking place in the research community: the process of making specific links between the animal and the human using available data and theory, and the process of making more or less general claims about the utility of animal models and the applicability of animal behavior genetics findings. Methodological discussions about tests such as the elevated plus maze demonstrate how researchers negotiate about what counts as sound evidence for the connection of this test to human anxiety, and about whether researchers should claim that test models “anxiety” or only “anxiety-like behavior.” The assumption that human behavioral disorders are likely to be “complex” animates many of these discussions about the practices and conceptual foundations of the field. I analyze how researchers stabilize particular representations of multi-faceted human behav- iors such as binge drinking by developing new models, and show how some researchers use these models to highlight the role of environmental factors in behavior rather than solely “reducing” human behavior to genes. Different understandings of the “complexity” of human behavior are also associated with different expectations about the stability of an- imal behavior genetics experimental systems and how quickly knowledge will accumulate in the field. I demonstrate how practitioners attempt to manage expectations about what associations can be made between genes and behavior not only in the laboratory but also with other audiences in mind, such as funding agencies, policy makers, and the public. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Nicole C. Nelson was born and raised in Waterloo, Ontario. Nicole was accepted to University of Western Ontario with a President’s Entrance scholarship in 1999. Unable to decide between the sciences or the humanities, she pursued an interdisciplinary degree in Genetics and Social and Political Theory through the Scholar’s Electives program. After completing her bachelor’s degree in 2004, Nicole enrolled in the Ph. D.program in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University to pursue her interests in the social studies of genetics. She received the Jasanoff Prize for the best graduate student paper in the department in 2009 for a paper related to her research on animal behavior genetics. In addition to her interest in practices in contemporary biomedicine, she has also conducted research and teaching on the intersections of science and gender and science and law. In 2008, Nicole co-organized a workshop on anticipatory knowledge in the life sciences, and co-edited a special issue of Science and Public Policy on anticipatory knowledge and the state arising from the workshop. She received a teaching award from the Knight Institute for Writing at Cornell for her freshman writing seminar on science, sex, and gender. Following the completion of her Ph. D., Nicole will begin a position as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Social Studies of Medicine at McGill University, where she will undertake an ethnographic study of cancer genomics research. iii For Geoff and Judy iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I am incredibly grateful to my academic advisors. I could not have asked for a better committee chair than Stephen Hilgartner. Throughout the process of researching and writing Steve was generous with his time and thoughts, and his visible enthusiasm for my project always perked me back up in moments when my own enthusi- asm was flagging. His meticulous attention to word choice and his continual reminders to think of social processes in terms of “dynamic tensions” will no doubt stay with me for the rest of my academic career. One of the things that I will miss most about living in Ithaca is being able to head up to Steve’s office for a two hour marathon meeting about my work. Michael Lynch has been a mentor and a friend from my first weeks in graduate school, and I thank him for helping me settle into life as a graduate student and for challenging me to find my own voice as a scholar. Mike’s ability to write and discuss academic work in a way that is deeply insightful while still being witty (and even a little bit mischievous) is something that I admire and aspire to. Christine Leuenberger has been a role model for me as a future academic because of her talent and passion for doing ethnographic research and because of her gift for translating even dense social theory into accessible and popular undergraduate courses. Craig Simpson, one of my undergraduate professors, also deserves mention, because without his encouragement and guidance I might have ended up in a very different line of study. He was supportive (and never judgmental) as I tried on different possible career goals as an undergrad, and encouraged me to be ambitious once I found one that fit. I am also deeply grateful to “Dr. Smith” and all of the researchers that I interacted with v during my fieldwork. My first attempts at doing ethnography were undoubtedly somewhat clumsy, and I am thankful to everyone at “Western University” for bearing with me while I figured out how to formulate my project, what it meant to do participant observation, how to ask good interview questions, and how to scruff a mouse. It was only as I was contacting other laboratories near the end of my stay at Western that I realized how fortunate I had been in finding a group of people who answered my unsolicited inquires, were willing to let me ask questions about virtually whatever I wanted, and were also interested enough in my project to make their own suggestions about “sociological moments” that I might want to observe. Their thoughtfulness about methods in their laboratory work has also made me more attentive to methodological questions in my own research practice. Several sources of funding support made this project possible. Small grants from the Institute for the Social Sciences at Cornell and a grant on “Emerging Technologies” from the National Science Foundation (Award No. 0352000) provided me with funds do preliminary interviews that helped me conceptualize the project and obtain access to my field site. A Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation (Award No. SES 0749635) did much more than “improve” my dissertation; it made it possible for me to undertake an extended period of fieldwork and travel to gather the information that I needed. I also received a Doctoral Research Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Award No. 752-07-0739) that supported me while I was conducting fieldwork, and a Sage Fellowship from Cornell that supported me while I was writing. I had a huge (and hugely supportive) network of people in Ithaca that helped keep me alive and well during the dissertation process, from dear friends that I made in the S&TS program to the Gimme! Coffee barista who made my large Americano every morning during my final writing push. Katie Proctor and Anna Geltzer, my graduate student cohort, were an invaluable source of support to me as we taught our first classes, took our exams, vi and wrote our first dissertation chapters together. At one point Katie and I received a “peer collaboration” grant to observe and offer feedback on courses that we were teaching, and we were tickled at the idea of getting paid to provide the support that we’d already come to depend on from each other. My fellow S&TS students and friends Angie Boyce, Jofish Kaye, Lisa Onaga, Hannah Rogers, Janet Vertesi, Ben Wang and Emma Zuroski all provided advice, sympathetic ears and distractions at various moments in my graduate career. Hans Meyer, a fellow student who passed away while I was a student and is still sorely missed, shared many enthusiastic conversations with me about teaching and our respective projects. Members of the STS writing group (including Matt Bernius, Alima Bissenova, and Marcie Middlebrooks from the anthropology department) read several draft chapters of this dissertation, and gave me the motivation to get more words on (virtual) paper. I also thank Minnie Jardine for her weekly yoga class at Cornell that kept me sane and focused during my last years of graduate school. My family was a key part of this support network. My brother Dan Nelson’s no-nonsense advice helped me quit my worrying and get on with my work in my first years of graduate school. My sister Laura Gittens’s fearlessness in the face of daunting career challenges has inspired me to be more brave in the goals I set for myself. The contributions of Harald Kliems, my wonderful partner whom I met during graduate school, were crucial in making this dissertation happen.