HUGERA

In another collaboration with Yasmin Haddad, Celso Neto has published the paper “Navigating Values in Scientific Recommendations.” The paper examines recommendations on the use of race, ethnicity, and ancestry in genomics.

It is conference season!

Talks by members of HUGERA this month:

July 15^th, “The ‘Muslim Genome’: From Eugenic Pasts to Genomic Futures” by Tayyaba Jiwani (HSS, Edinburgh, UK)

July 16^th, “Signal and Noise in Human Population Genetics” by Celso Neto (SPSP, Cambridge)

July 17^th, “How do considerations of race inform scientific practice in genomic research on human health?” by Lauren Wilson (SPSP, Cambridge, UK)

July 22^nd, “Diversity within Genetic Studies of Complex Traits” by Lauren Wilson (BSPS, Leeds, UK)

July 23^rd, “Typological Problems in Populational Science” by Celso Neto (BSPS, Leeds, UK)

July 29^th, “When is a methodological choice an ethical problem?” by Celso Neto (Brunel University, London, UK)

Please get in touch for details or visit the website of the respective conferences.

Celso Neto is one of the co-editors, alongside Stephan Guttinger (Exeter) and Sabina Leonelli (TU Munich) of the open-access volume “Life Beyond Human Boundaries: John Dupré’s Philosophy and the Interdisciplinary Study of the Life Sciences.” Celso also contributed to the introductory chapter.

The volume engages with the work of John Dupré, philosopher of biology whose views on classification and values in science provide a philosophical groundwork for HUGERA.

The HUGERA team has been doing several talks this summer. We will post a full schedule soon. Here is the next one:

Celso Neto is a contributing author in the Routledge Handbook of Values and Science. This comprehensive and authoritative edited volume is now open access!

We thank Kevin Elliott and Ted Richards for this editorial work!

There is still time to join us at 4S this year. The deadline for abstract submission is now April 5th.

Our project is organizing an open symposium and welcomes abstract submissions. Info below:

Panel #106: Human Genomics in the Global Economy 

Co-organisers: Tayyaba Jiwani (University of Exeter), Matthew Tontonoz (Arizona State University), Celso Neto (University of Exeter), Stuart Hogarth (University of Cambridge)

This panel situates the explosion of human genomic biotechnologies over the past two decades within broader transformations in the global neoliberal economy. Despite the centrality of biotech innovation to neoliberalism (Cooper 2008), detailed analyses of the political economy of genomic research and innovation remain relatively scarce, especially in the Global South.
Initial scholarship has theorised the circulation of biological materials through ‘tissue economies’, and the creation of new forms of ‘biocapital’ through notions of intellectual property linked to speculative finance, venture capital and processes of ‘assetization’ and rentier capitalism (Waldby and Mitchell 2006; Sunder Rajan 2006; Birch 2016; Christophers 2020; Rikap 2024; Baines and Hager, 2025). It has also highlighted the gendered and racialised relations of production and exchange established on this terrain through legacies of colonial and capitalist science.

However, the rapid pace of technological change has meant genomics is reshaping entire industries (e.g. healthcare, pharmaceuticals, reproduction, surveillance, forensics, or security) and demands renewed theoretical and empirical attention. This panel will curate new approaches to studying the political economy of human genomics and biotech research and innovation in contemporary capitalism. 

We welcome contributions, both empirical and conceptual, that engage with questions of:
– Privatisation, speculation, and financialisation in genomics innovation, and its diverse actors (e.g. venture capital, academia or philanthropy)
– Redefining notions of value, labour, and capital in genomic data, materials, and technologies  
– Inequality and exploitation, structured through the axes of race, gender, and class in genomics research and innovation
– North-South hierarchies in knowledge production and economic flows
– The dynamics of genomics and biotechnologies in postcolonial contexts, particularly the role of the nation-state and nationalist science
– New theorisations of the political economy of genomics under conditions of neoimperialism, techno-militarism, surveillance capitalism, and right-wing nativism
– Emancipatory, anticapitalist and decolonial approaches to genomics.

Submission instructions: https://www.4sonline.org/call_for_submissions_toronto.php

Our project is organizing an open symposium at the next 4S Conference, in Toronto (Oct 7 – 10). Please consider submitting your abstract! Info below:

Panel #106: Human Genomics in the Global Economy 

Co-organisers: Tayyaba Jiwani (University of Exeter), Matthew Tontonoz (Arizona State University), Celso Neto (University of Exeter), Stuart Hogarth (University of Cambridge)

This panel situates the explosion of human genomic biotechnologies over the past two decades within broader transformations in the global neoliberal economy. Despite the centrality of biotech innovation to neoliberalism (Cooper 2008), detailed analyses of the political economy of genomic research and innovation remain relatively scarce, especially in the Global South.
Initial scholarship has theorised the circulation of biological materials through ‘tissue economies’, and the creation of new forms of ‘biocapital’ through notions of intellectual property linked to speculative finance, venture capital and processes of ‘assetization’ and rentier capitalism (Waldby and Mitchell 2006; Sunder Rajan 2006; Birch 2016; Christophers 2020; Rikap 2024; Baines and Hager, 2025). It has also highlighted the gendered and racialised relations of production and exchange established on this terrain through legacies of colonial and capitalist science.

However, the rapid pace of technological change has meant genomics is reshaping entire industries (e.g. healthcare, pharmaceuticals, reproduction, surveillance, forensics, or security) and demands renewed theoretical and empirical attention. This panel will curate new approaches to studying the political economy of human genomics and biotech research and innovation in contemporary capitalism. 

We welcome contributions, both empirical and conceptual, that engage with questions of:
– Privatisation, speculation, and financialisation in genomics innovation, and its diverse actors (e.g. venture capital, academia or philanthropy)
– Redefining notions of value, labour, and capital in genomic data, materials, and technologies  
– Inequality and exploitation, structured through the axes of race, gender, and class in genomics research and innovation
– North-South hierarchies in knowledge production and economic flows
– The dynamics of genomics and biotechnologies in postcolonial contexts, particularly the role of the nation-state and nationalist science
– New theorisations of the political economy of genomics under conditions of neoimperialism, techno-militarism, surveillance capitalism, and right-wing nativism
– Emancipatory, anticapitalist and decolonial approaches to genomics.

Submission deadline: April 30th, 2026 

Submission instructions: https://www.4sonline.org/call_for_submissions_toronto.php

Celso Neto and collaborator Yasmin Haddad have a new paper entitled “Values in Human Genomics.” You can access a pre-print here.

The piece is part of volume Routledge Handbook of Values and Science (forthcoming) edited by Kevin Elliott and Ted Richards.

Hugera’s online lecture series continues in 2026, and we have 3 confirmed talks to start the year.

Please register here.