December - Natali Valdez
Please join me in congratulating Natali Valdez, assistant professor of anthropology, on being awarded the Eileen Basker Memorial Book Prize from the Society for Medical Anthropology for her book Weighing the Future: Race, Science, and Pregnancy Trials in the Postgenomic Era, published by University of California Press. Her book was also a finalist for the 2023 Ludwick Fleck Prize from the Society of the Social Studies of Science.
As the first ethnography of its kind, Weighing the Future examines the sociopolitical implications of ongoing pregnancy trials in the United States and the United Kingdom. It illuminates how processes of scientific knowledge production are linked to capitalism, surveillance, and environmental reproduction. Natali argues that a focus on individual behavior rather than social environments ignores the vital impacts of systemic racism.
Congratulations, Professor Valdez!
David A. Reingold
Senior Vice President for Policy Planning
Justin S. Morrill Dean of Liberal Arts
Professor of Sociology
Purdue University