Centre for the Social Study of Microbes

The aim of this Research Development Award is to establish a leading centre for the social study of microbes.

Since their discovery, microbes have been predominantly defined as pathogenic and threatening to human and animal health.

Recently, however, societal, and scientific views about microbes, immunity, and antibiotics have started to acknowledge the beneficial and symbiotic qualities of bacteria, viruses and fungi.

Existing social scientific language is insufficient and outdated in describing the complex and entwined relationships between humans, nonhumans, microbes, and environments. These relations with microbes raise profound challenges for the foundations of social theory.

Strategically situated within an emerging network of research, this application will establish an egalitarian and experimental research infrastructure to develop new social scientific concepts and methodology to address the challenge.

The Centre will host international research fellows and an art residency, and organise social theory and methodology workshops, two academic seminars annually, and a yearly PhD Summer School to support younger generations of scholars.

Not only is this work theoretically essential, it is also key to understanding and acting upon the way humans relate to microbes and other nonhumans, a vital objective for developing sustainable ways of planetary co-existence.