Lisa Onaga

Joined: Sep 7, 2016 Last Active: Nov 22, 2016 iNaturalist

I am an historian of science, technology, and environment at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. My background is in ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB) and science & technology studies (STS). My research focus has been on the history of human-animal interactions and biological knowledge in relation to the mass-production of convenient things such as silk (a byproduct of Bombyx mori metamorphosis). Like evolution, the story of how this project developed does not follow a neat path. I once studied the physiological ecology of ascidians (a marine invertebrate) as a model for understanding how climate change would bear upon evolutionary fitness. This led me to questions about why there seems to be a disjuncture between the messages (warnings) humans can glean from animal/plant bioindicators and the human decisions that may or may not consider these messages. How does scientific knowledge actually interact with society? I pursued a career in science writing and worked at the interface of science and journalism before pursuing graduate study to investigate more deeply how societies have historically sought to make sense of scientific knowledge in everyday life about the natural world.

This year, I am teaching 'History of Animals'. Since animals don't "write" histories the way humans do, this class explores the processes by which humans' knowledge about animals has formed over the ages. Our seminar this term will be experimenting with iNaturalist.org to conduct a bioblitz. What is a bioblitz, and who cares? What useful knowledge is produced? We hope to learn about the methods used today to contextualize contemporary biodiversity studies in relation to natural history/EEB methods of the past. At the same time, we will critically reflect on how technology mediates a granular understanding of the methods of observing biota. Then, we can deepen the basic question, 'What is the historical significance of studying individuals and populations'?

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