Folklore, Gene Editing, and the Twittersphere: #CRISPRfacts and #Gattaca
![A hasthtag icon, "#," is in bold white font, against a light blue background in replication of Twitter.](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/social-media-640543_640.png?itok=mGCyQ2r5)
During the 128th American Folklore Society Annual Meeting, Program Manager Leah Lowthorp presented her paper which explores the relationship between folklore and gene editing through a consideration of the Twitter hashtags #CRISPRfacts and #Gattaca. Approaching hashtags as a space of emergent folk commentary, it examines the ways in which #CRISPRfacts and #Gattaca respectively evidence wider social skepticism and fear surrounding the present and future of genetic modification technologies. In so doing, the paper makes a larger argument for folklorists to pay greater attention to the folklore of science and technology, as a way of understanding how the public is grappling with the quickly changing biotechnological world around us.
The full program to this meeting "Community: Resistance, Reclamation, and Re-Creation" is available here.
Leah's powerpoint presentation is available.