Queer Bioethics for Everyday Medical Technologies

Abstract

Multimodal tools and systems form the foundations of knowledge: the design of the tools, systems, and databases used everyday form what is known and how it is known. The health humanities can be energized by integrating a humanities-based approach to these tools so as to help students understand the politics such systems enact. In this chapter, the author presents a how-to guide for incorporating technologies as critical bioethical method into course pedagogy, including a short syllabus. The essay is oriented, in other words, to help those with little background in multimodal methods use it in their courses in a way that goes beyond only the instrumental. It articulates how to use such methods as critical inquiry about tools and systems themselves, by centering its example in the intersections between queer theory, critical media studies, and bioethical knowledges.