Our Transgenic Future

Lisa Jean Moore is SUNY Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Purchase College, State University of New York. She is the author of Sperm Counts: Overcome by Man's Most Precious Fluid, Catch & Release: The Enduring Yet Vulnerable Horseshoe Crab, Our Transgenic Future: Spider Goats, Genetic Modification and the Will to Change Nature as well as the co-author of Missing Bodies: The Politics of Visibility and Buzz: Urban Beekeeping and the Power of the Bee. She is also co-editor of The Body Reader: Essential Social and Cultural Readings.

"Lisa Jean Moore contributes a very needed conversation regarding the ways technology is built, maintained, and destroyed, and the tensions that evolve in its creation between funding entities, scientific knowledge production, and the general public. Moore walks a narrow line between a fear of dystopian consequences and a realization of the sheer possibilities associated with their human-driven existence. Her voice is nicely interwoven with interspecies relationships, the commodification of nonhuman-nonanimal animals (at least in the natural sense), scientific facts, economic drivers, and the oft-unrealized presence of transgenic technologies in our daily lives." (Andrea Laurent-Simpson, author of Just Like Family: How Companion Animals Joined the Household) "A fascinating and fun read. Lisa Jean Moore deftly analyzes a biologically and ethically complex topic, using reflexive analyses to guide the reader along, and contributing to emergent knowledge about genetically modified animals. Moore's reflexivity invites the reader to witness her thinking about difficult issues, and thus the book also provides a path for us as readers to think alongside her. She doesn't tell readers what to think on the topic, or even how to think about it, but by modeling her thinking through the topic, we are able to fully grasp the issue at hand and come to our own (messy) conclusions." (Elizabeth Cherry, author of For the Birds: Protecting Wildlife through the Naturalist Gaze) "For a reader interested in the details and daily routine of this kind of scientific interaction with large animals, there is much in this book to enjoy. One may also learn something about spiders, which are undoubtedly fascinating creatures." - John Dupré (Los Angeles Review of Books) "Moore's narration is delicate, respectful, and wonder-filled... genuinely fun and eminently accessible. Lisa Jean Moore's Our Transgenic Future is an entertaining, thoughtful inquiry into genetic engineering in general and all of the many ethical questions that it raises." - Rebecca Coffey (Forbes)