Article ID: CBB585620832

New Meanings in the Archive: Privacy, Technological Change and the Status of Sources (2022)

unapi

Jenny Bangham (Author)


Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte
Volume: 45
Issue: 3
Pages: 499-507


Publication Date: 2022
Edition Details: Issue theme: Embracing Ambivalence and Change
Language: English

This essay reflects on how technological changes in biomedicine can affect what archival sources are available for historical research. Historians and anthropologists have examined the ways in which old biomedical samples can be made to serve novel scientific purposes, such as when decades-old frozen tissue specimens are analyzed using new genomic techniques. Those uses are also affected by shifting ethical regimes, which affect who can do what with old samples, or whether anything can be done with them at all. Archival collections are subject to similar dynamics, as institutional change and shifts in ethical guidelines and privacy laws affect which sources can be accessed and which are closed. I witnessed just such a change during my research into human genetics using archives in the Wellcome Collection. A few years into my project, those archives had their privacy conditions reassessed, and I saw how some sources previously seen as neutral were now understood to contain personal sensitive information. This paper describes the conditions of this shift—including the effects of technological change, new ethical considerations, and changing laws around privacy. I reflect on how these affected my understanding of the history of human genetics, and how I and others might narrate it.

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Associated with

Article Lara Keuck; Kärin Nickelsen (2022) Introduction: Embracing Ambivalence and Change. Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte (pp. 291-300). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB585620832/

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Authors & Contributors
Yermolov, P. P.
Moore, Sharlissa
Williams, Logan D. A.
Tempini, Niccolò
Javier Goicolea Zala
Schwabl, Herbert
Concepts
Science and technology, relationships
Development of technology; change in technology
Science and law
Biomedicine
Data collection; methods
Radio
Time Periods
21st century
19th century
20th century, late
20th century, early
20th century
18th century
Places
Great Britain
United States
Russia
Europe
Tibet
Crimea (Ukraine)
Institutions
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT
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