Weighing the Future: Race, Science, and Pregnancy Trials in the Postgenomic EraEpigenetics, the study of heritable changes in gene expression, has been heralded as one of the most promising new fields of scientific inquiry. Current large-scale studies selectively draw on epigenetics to connect behavioral choices made by pregnant people, such as diet and exercise, to health risks for future generations. 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, illuminating how processes of scientific knowledge production are linked to capitalism, surveillance, and environmental reproduction. Natali Valdez argues that a focus on individual behavior rather than social environments ignores the vital impacts of systemic racism. The environments we imagine to shape our genes, bodies, and future health are intimately tied to race, gender, and structures of inequality. This groundbreaking book makes the case that science, and how we translate it, is a reproductive project that requires feminist vigilance. Instead of fixating on a future at risk, this book brings attention to the present at stake. |
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biological biomarkers biopolitical blood bodies and behaviors calories chapter clinical trials consortium contemporary pregnancy trials contexts Diana diet diverse eating environmental epigenetic foreclosure epigenetic modifications epigenetic science epigenetics and DOHaD epistemic environments examine exposure feminist fetus focus focused foreclosure framed future health gene genetic genome gestational weight gain Global Global North glucose tolerance test health outcomes health trainer heteronormative impact implementation improvisation included individual lifestyle interventions infant IOM report maternal environment maternal health maternal nutrition maternal weight metabolic midwife Motherwell neoliberal nutritional interventions obesity during pregnancy overweight policies politics of postgenomic populations postgenomic reproduction preg pregnancy trials pregnant biobits pregnant bodies pregnant participants pregnant women prenatal nutrition prenatal trials race race/racism racial racism racist environments recruitment risk scientific shape Slimming World SmartStart trial social standards StandUp trial surveillance target tion UK trial United Kingdom Weight Watchers