From 'Open' Space to Innerspace: The Contested Genetic Frontier (CURA Colloquium)

Presenter: Nicholas Covaleski, PhD Student, Department of Religion, Boston University

The frontier myth, according to which the conquering of new frontiers is pivotal to national expansion and progress, is one of the most longstanding and pervasive myths in United States culture. Underscoring its religious dimensions in particular, this paper explores how frontier mythology has animated the domain of genetics in the US. By doing so, it seeks to contribute to scholarship on religion and empire by showing how the myth of the frontier, functioning as imperialist ideology in narrative form, has been extended beyond the conquering of the “open” space of the West and into the “innerspace” of the human body.

Reading the paper in advance is required for attendance. Email cura@bu.edu for your copy.