Flavio D’Abramo was a visiting postdoctoral fellow in Department I from 2019 to 2020 and a postdoctoral fellow in the Lise Meitner Research Group “China in the Global System of Science” in 2021. He studied history and philosophy of science at the Alexandre Koyré Centre, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Imperial College London, and Sapienza University of Rome, where in 2012 he received a PhD in Philosophy and History of Biology. His research combines the history, philosophy, and sociology of biology and medicine to analyze the technological translation of biomedical models under both the guiding policies of national and international agencies as well as the cultural, economic, ethical, and geopolitical patterns shaping scientific production within public health systems. His project in the Lise Meitner Research Group focuses on twentieth-century health diplomacy and related expert knowledge conceived as political devices used to coordinate heterogeneous political regimes.
He has published on the history and philosophy of biomedicine and biology as well as on empirical medical ethics to inquire how medical research and experimental practices intertwine with public, private, and national interests.
Projects
Selected Publications
D’Abramo, Flavio (2021). “The Past and Present of Pandemic Management: Health Diplomacy, International Epidemiological Surveillance, and Covid-19.” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 43 (2, Article 64). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-021-00416-4.
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D’Abramo, Flavio and Sybille Neumeyer (2020). “A Historical and Political Epistemology of Microbes.” Centaurus 62 (2): 321–330. https://doi.org/10.1111/1600-0498.12300.
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D’Abramo, Flavio (2020). “Oysters, Selective Pressures, and Antibiotic Resistance in the Mississippi Delta.” Anthropocene Curriculum 23.03.2020: 1–8. https://www.anthropocene-curriculum.org/contribution/oysters-selective-pressures-and-antibiotic-resistance-in-the-mississippi-delta.
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D’Abramo, Flavio and Hannah Landecker (2019). “Anthropocene in the Cell.” Technosphere Magazine 20.3.2019: 1–7. https://technosphere-magazine.hkw.de/p/Anthropocene-in-the-Cell-fQjoLLgrE7jbXzLYr1TLNn.
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D’Abramo, Flavio (2018). “Health, wealth and behavioural change : an exploration of role responsibilities in the wake of epigenetics.” Journal of Community Genetics 9 (2): 153–167. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12687-017-0315-7.
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D’Abramo, Flavio, Giuli Gandolfi, Gerardo Ienna, Pietro Daniel Omodeo, and Charles Wolfe (2021). “Political Epistemology of Pandemic Management.” Mefisto. Rivista di medicina, filosofia, storia 5 (1): 121–145. https://www.journal.edizioniets.eu/index.php/mefisto/article/view/343.
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Media
Presentations, Talks, & Teaching Activities
Technische Universität Berlin, Department for the History of Technology
Bard College Berlin, A Liberal Arts University
Tel Aviv University, Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas
43rd conference of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), New Orleans
42nd conference of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), Sydney
Research for Global Challenges with Italian Institute of Technology, Ca Foscari University of Venice
Epigenetics: Innovation of Memory? Life Science Paradigms as Challenge and Opportunity for Historians
Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin
The Politics of Plasticity: On Solidarity and Mutual Aid
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Institute of Philosophy, Prague
Science and Democracy Network, 16th Annual Meeting
Harvard Law School, Cambridge (MA)