Larry Au

My proposed dissertation will examine the contemporary scientific research by the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) community in China and the United States. The dissertation will be organized around the concept of boundary work and will look at how boundary crossing is made possible under different organizational and institutional settings. Through interviews and analytical methods offered by field theory, network analysis, and actor network theory, the project will examine how TCM is selectively integrated with different disciplines within the biomedical sciences. The findings of this research will reveal not just how TCM's knowledge and practices are made scientific, but also how scientific innovation occurs through the incorporation of diverse forms of expertise.

How do scientists in the Chinese periphery help sustain transnational scientific networks between Mainland China and overseas? How do scientists in the Chinese periphery shape the norms and culture of Chinese science? How does research in genomics by Chinese scientists in the periphery contest notions of “Chineseness”? To answer these three questions, this project draws on mixed methods involving bibliometrics and documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation of scientific conferences. This project draws on perspectives from sociology and science and technology studies to better inform scholarship in China Studies by showing how political power and social identities are intricately linked to scientific knowledge.