S06: “Bringing Gender into Science – and Back!” Historical and Ethnographic Perspectives on Sex Development

The project S06 considers the history of science and feminist science studies, assuming that knowledge of sex development is not an issue for the life sciences alone but is also shaped by normative presumptions about gender, which influence biological theories and concepts of sexual differences. It will (1) reconstruct the historical conditions of biomedical research apparatuses (experimental systems, animal models) as well as gendered theories and concepts of sex development from 1950 to 1990, (2) use ethnographic methods to explore the gendered conditions of endocrinological research, and (3) bring together the history of research, ethnographically reflexive research practice (“science in action”), and endocrine research (M02, Hornig/Müller) in an ongoing methodological and epistemological exchange. This form of collaboration with M02 will serve as a model project that can be used to design collaborations with other biomedical research projects in the CRC and beyond. The CRC institutionalises possibilities of creating interdisciplinary research collaborations between the humanities and the life sciences that have been lacking until now.