University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2013 The evD il Undone: the science and politics of Tasmanian Devil facial tumour disease Josephine Veronica Warren University of Wollongong,
[email protected] Recommended Citation Warren, Josephine Veronica, The eD vil Undone: the science and politics of Tasmanian Devil facial tumour disease, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication, University of Wollongong, 2013. http://ro.uow.edu.au/ theses/4182 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library:
[email protected] The Devil Undone: The Science and Politics of Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease Josephine Veronica Warren BA (Hons) University of Wollongong School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication 20 December 2013 This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy Abstract The Tasmanian devil is a carnivorous marsupial endemic to the island state of Tasmania, part of the larger continent of Australia, threatened with extinction from a deadly cancer. The research into the cancer, termed Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD), followed a pathway that supported the hypothesis that the cancer was transmissible, passed from devil to devil by biting, called an allograft. By adopting a political sociological approach, I analyse the scientific research into the devil cancer through the concept of undone science, which I expand by developing a typology of reasons, both practical and political, for deficits of knowledge. My analysis initially finds that scientific evidence has not been established to confirm the transmission of the cancer by biting.