"They are my babies": Meeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the Scientists Who Care for It

• Main Author: Chloë-Sarah Shain
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dalhousie University Libraries 2017-09-01
• Series: The Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography
• Online Access: https://ojs.library.dal.ca/JUE/article/view/8418

Moving beyond what various scholars call the “human exceptionalism” in the social sciences, this multispecies research explored the relationships between Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) − the bacteria that is responsible for causing the disease Tuberculosis (TB) − and four molecular biologists who worked at a TB research centre in the Western Cape of South Africa. Using fingeryeyes, a conceptual and methodological tool derived by Eva Hayward (2010), the ethnographer participated through observation and touched through sight. In a space that was scientific there was care, in a space of risk there was nurture. In an environment of scientific lingo and hard-core jargon, parenthood emerged. Rather than Mtb microbes being solely subjects for experiments, they were babies that needed to be cared for. Making these babies was also making parents and scientists.