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Sorry for cross posting *Call for papers:* *Open panel: Biotechnologies and Immigration* *Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) and the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2012: October 17-20, 2012, Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark* organised by Torsten Heinemann (Goethe University, Frankfurt), Ilpo Helén (University of Helsinki), and Thomas Lemke (Goethe University, Frankfurt) For a long time immigrants have been subject to a diverse range of medical and biological examinations. These procedures have been aimed at the verification of the immigrants’ identities and the protection of public health. Today biotechnological procedures are widely used in the context of immigration in many countries around the world, allowing for more and more sophisticated ways of identification and prevention. Examples include biometric passports and iris scans to identify individuals at border controls, DNA and isotopic analysis to prove claims about asylum seekers’ countries of origin, and parental tests conducted to verify biological relatedness in family reunification procedures. Additionally, medical diagnostic rapid tests are used in international airports to prevent the spread of diseases and protect citizens of a given country against infectious pandemics. The use of biotechnologies might help immigration authorities to increase certainty about immigrants’ identities and health status. It also allows immigrants to prove claims about their identity, origin, or family status. At the same time, the tests rely on the contested idea of a stable and unchanging body that can be addressed as the basis for identification and medical examination. Also, they produce new forms of uncertainty and may be seen as a tool of exclusion for unwanted immigrants. This panel invites papers that explore the use of biotechnologies in immigration contexts and analyse the complex social, political and ethical implications of these practices. Proposals should address the historical development as well as the social, political and ethical aspects of biotechnologies in immigration contexts. Please submit your abstract electronically via <http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/ssss/4s12/> and make sure to suggest that your paper will fit into open panel 63, "Biotechnologies and Immigration". You can find more details about the conference on <http://www.4sonline.org/meeting>. The deadline for abstract submissions is 18 March 2012. For further information and details, feel free to contact the organizers: Torsten Heinemann, <[log in to unmask]> Ilpo Helén, <[log in to unmask]> Thomas Lemke, <[log in to unmask]> **************************************************** This is a message from the SURVEILLANCE listserv for research and teaching in surveillance studies. To unsubscribe, please send the following message to <[log in to unmask]>: UNSUBSCRIBE SURVEILLANCE For further help, please visit: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/help ****************************************************