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Ceccarelli a fellow in Research Consortium
June 27, 2011
Associate Professor Leah Ceccarelli is a rhetorical critic and theorist, focusing her research on interdisciplinary and public discourse about science.
She is the recipient of several research awards, including the Rhetoric Society of America's book award and the National Communication Association's Golden Anniversary Monograph award. This summer she will add another honor to that list as one of four faculty fellows in the 2011 Research Consortium on Biological Futures in a Globalized World.
An initiative of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) and the University of Washington, the Center for Biological Futures, along with the Simpson Center for the Humanities, is undertaking a series of interdisciplinary projects designed to lay the groundwork for a sustained program of rigorous research and innovative training surrounding complex biological issues, such as the impact of human manipulation of the biosphere for food and fuel; responses to infectious diseases.
As one of those projects, the Summer Consortium will bring together scholars of varying disciplines to encourage research related to the biological sciences, and the ethical issues facing scientists as new research is produced. Fellows will meet once a week for six weeks to talk about their research and get new ideas, as well as hear from biological scientists about other issues that they feel need to be explored.
“I’m very excited,” said Ceccarelli, “because it’s bringing together not just people from the social sciences and humanities, but they are getting together with scientists to talk about how they should think about what they’re doing, what our future holds for us. A lot of very interesting issues with respect to politics, ethics, and language.”
During the fellowship, Ceccarelli will be examining the use of the metaphor the “frontier of science,” often heard when politicians and scientists are making the case for research priorities in the biological sciences. As the topic of one of the last chapters of her book, At the Frontiers of Science: An American Rhetoric of Exploration and Exploitation in a Postcolonial Transnational Context, Ceccarelli’s research focuses on the constraints and possibilities of the metaphor in American public discourse concerning stem cell research.
“So my argument in the book is that there are some problems with this metaphor that the sort of imperialist assumptions that come with pushing forward into the frontier sometimes works against the people who are using that metaphor,” said Ceccarelli. She refers to the example of President George W. Bush who used the metaphor when describing stem cell research at the same time he was arguing against it.
“Bush said scientists are pushing the horizons of what we can do, and he calls them pioneers of stem cell research which, you would think, is feeding into that metaphor,” Ceccarelli points out. “But then he has to make a case that we need to draw back. He tries to work against the frontier metaphor by using other metaphors, so he talks about ‘moral hazards,’ and creates this image with the language using the phrase, ‘the land is mined,’ so there are hidden bombs that will go off if we cross that boundary. He uses these other metaphors to try and persuade his audience that it’s really the right thing to do to not cross this boundary.”
Bush put a block on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research during his time in office, which President Obama later overturned.
Ceccarelli will finish this chapter in her book during the fellowship. She intends to finish the book during her sabbatical in autumn and winter quarters. Over the last few years, she has participated in a science studies network of academics from various departments and schools. In the future, Ceccarelli hopes to work with them to create an interdisciplinary graduate student certificate to attract more graduate students interested in science studies to the university. With a development like that, she says, “not only can they do science studies in their home department, but they can take courses in other departments as well.”
