Eliza Ge, a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology, has received first place in the Peter K. New Student Research Competition for her M.A. paper entitled, "The Ethics of Trying: Patient-Funded Experimental Gene Therapy in China."
The Peter Kong-ming New Student Research Competition, held annually by the Society for Applied Anthropology, celebrates outstanding student research in the applied social and behavioral sciences. In conversation with the department, Eliza reflects on the research that earned first place in the competition.
“The awarded work draws on my earlier research as a policy analyst from 2023-2024, prior to joining Brown, as well as my summer research last year. It examines the knowledge production and practice of genomic medicine in China, focusing on parents who are funding experimental gene therapies in collaboration with patient advocacy organizations, scientists, and clinicians for their children with rare neurodegenerative diseases. By bringing together parents’ understandings of gene therapies with perspectives from scientists and pharmaceutical companies, I analyze how gene therapies are conceptualized, materialized, and circulated within pharmaceutical capitalism, China’s techno-national ambitions, and the moral economy of hope.”