The ethnography examines the different roles of epigenetics in both new scientific thinking and within clinical trials that test nutritional interventions on pregnant women deemed obese. Contrary to commonly held assumptions that underlie genetic determinism, epigenetics represents a paradigmatic shift through the study of how environmental conditions affect gene regulation. Research and prevention efforts around the growing public concern for childhood and adult obesity have recently shifted focus to a new population: pregnant women. Epigenetic science claims that women who are obese during pregnancy have a higher chance of having children who develop obesity and diabetes in adulthood. In the case of obesity during pregnancy, epigenetic researchers worry that a pregnant woman’s diet and overall health may affect not only the health of her unborn child, but also the genetic development of future generations. My ethnography follows scientists as they navigate through the new epigenetic paradigm and investigate the effects of dietary interventions on obese pregnant women.

This project involved sixteen months of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork, carried out between 2012 and 2014. I completed participant observation and interviews at two randomized clinical trials: the SmartStart trial in the United States and the StandUp trial in the United Kingdom. Both trials use epigenetic theories to test the efficacy of prenatal interventions. However, each trial uses different diet and exercise interventions on pregnant women. While the US trial implements a behavioral intervention that focuses on weight gain and calorie control, the UK trial emphasizes the need to control sugar consumption during pregnancy. Both trials also follow up with the participants’ children to evaluate the effects of the prenatal interventions on the children’s early development. I actively participated in the SmartStart trial in the US as a nutritional counselor and volunteer staff member. I was responsible for delivering the dietary intervention, recruitment, and data collection practices. At the StandUp trial in the UK, I observed twenty-four intervention visits and over twenty different data collection visits, as well as monthly staff meetings and weekly conference calls.

The ethnography juxtaposes the justification and design of the clinical trials on behalf of the staff and scientists, with the experiences of the pregnant participants. By examining the application of dietary prenatal interventions in contemporary science ethnographically, I aim to interrupt a pattern of thinking in which women’s bodies are the inevitable targets of intervention to address future epidemics. Throughout the ethnography I examine themes related to how epigenetic science has influenced notions of the environment, “good mothering,” “healthy eating,” and the future risk of disease. In the ethnography I argue that individualizing dietary responsibility solely on the mothers obscures the social, gendered, and environmental factors that also influence their behavior and health. My findings show that epigenetic science is not a homogenous or monolithic paradigm. Rather, different scientists are applying particular aspects of epigenetics, which contribute to what I call the proliferation of epigenetic adaptations.

The #MeToo movement has illuminated how sexual violence continues to be an urgent problem with both ethical and political implications. In the U.S. and elsewhere, sexual violence is one of the most pervasive yet underreported crimes that disproportionally impact women, especially those from marginalized communities. Moreover, as feminist scholars have criticized, when women seek to expose these harms, they risk being disbelieved, interrogated, and left feeling isolated, ashamed, and disempowered. Given the prevalence of sexual violence and the normative implications that it carries, what tools are available to confront it?

This project develops a novel theory of civic testimony to illuminate how some practices of testimony can help women and marginalized communities struggle against sexual violence and for a more egalitarian society aligned with feminist ethics. Building on feminist theory, democratic theory, and interdisciplinary work on testimony, this dissertation theorizes the potential testimonies carry to promote multiple ethical and political ends. These include asserting epistemic authority, claiming political agency, generating solidarity, advancing awareness and calls for change, and mobilizing political action. These insights are drawn from an examination of how women have used different forms of testimony in the official legal realm and through civil society channels. Specifically, this study focuses on contemporary court cases, the anti-rape movement in the 1970s in the U.S., and the digital arena through the case of the Facebook page “One of One” in Israel. This analysis supports arguments for improving legal processes related to legal testimony but turns a spotlight on civil society as the site with the greatest potential for testimonies to operate as democratic tools that can empower movements and fuel social change. Moreover, it argues that civic testimonies are vital for informing and radicalizing civil society itself. Thus, they can play a key role in advancing the goals of egalitarian democracy. Democratic citizens, social justice advocates, and scholars need to recognize how and why civic testimonies can do dramatic work and become catalysts for democratic resistance and egalitarian change.

In Mediterranean climates, mild year-round temperatures support comfortable human settlement with rich agricultural regions. The climate’s long summer drought, seasonal river flow, high inter-annual variability in precipitation, and episodic floods threaten these settlements, leading to highly manipulated hydrologic systems.

The degree of hydrological alteration and consequent ecological change is typically much greater in Mediterranean-climate rivers than humid-climate systems. Dams, diversions, irrigation channels, storage and distribution facilities simultaneously restrict flow regimes, support economic development and destroy the native biological communities in Mediterranean drainage basins. Overcoming the complex relationships among climate, economy and our entangled legal and political institutions challenge the restoration potential of Mediterranean-climate river systems worldwide.

In Mediterranean climates, mild year-round temperatures support comfortable human settlement with rich agricultural regions. The climate’s long summer drought, seasonal river flow, high inter-annual variability in precipitation and episodic floods threaten these settlements, leading to highly manipulated hydrologic systems. The degree of hydrological alteration and consequent ecological change is typically much greater in Mediterranean climate rivers than humid-climate systems1. Dams, diversions, irrigation channels, storage and distribution facilities simultaneously restrict flow regimes, support economic development and destroy the native biological communities in the Mediterranean.

Overcoming the complex relationships among climate, economy and our entangled legal and political institutions challenge the restoration potential of Mediterranean climate river systems worldwide.

While the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) promises a streamlined institutional structure with the scope and authority to develop and regulate basinscale management plans, the long-standing local needs for flood defense, water treatment and water supply infrastructure will be implemented by municipalities, land owners and farmers on the ground. Collaboration with researchers in other Mediterranean climate regions holds promise for defining solutions.