From climate change to COVID-19 to reproductive justice, there has been deep political polarization around science. Labs of Our Own provides a unique entry point into these 21st century science wars by focusing on our affective relationships to science. The book delves into various sites where scientists, teachers, artists, and activists claim to create more democratic access to science – from DIY biology community labs to feminist classrooms to activist science pratitioners. The reader will find that these claims for and attempts at democratic sciences not only impact what counts as science and who counts as a scientist but reconfigures who is included in the proper public. Instead of arguing for a knee-jerk defense of Science against right wing attacks, Labs of Our Own builds the case for a feminist, anti-racist, decolonial, queer science tinkering practice that intentionally, politically, and ethically acts to produce new challenges to the definition and boundaries of the human.

Sig/Sara Giordano is an associate professor of interdisciplinary studies at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.