A/Prof. Maurizio Meloni

Maurizio Meloni is a social theorist and a science and technology studies scholar. He is the author of L'Orecchio di Freud. Societa' della comunicazione e Pensiero Affettivo (Dedalo, 2005); Political Biology: Science and Social Values in Human Heredity from Eugenics to Epigenetics (Palgrave 2016); Impressionable Biologies: From the Archaeology of Plasticity to the Sociology of Epigenetics (Routledge, 2019); co-editor of Biosocial Matters (Wiley 2016); and chief editor of the Palgrave Handbook of Biology and Society (2018). He is currently an ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor of Sociology at Deakin University, Australia. He has benefited from several research grants, including two Marie Curie fellowships, a Fulbright scholarship, funded visits at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG, Berlin), DAAD and OEAD fellowships in Germany and Austria, and an annual membership at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (NJ).

You can find Maurizio's publications on his Academia page.

2013- International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB)

2011- 2016 British Sociological Association (BSA)

2011- Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S)

Social Theory

History and Philosophy of Biology and Medicine
Sociology of Epigenetics
Intellectual History
Social Studies of Science

Maurizio Meloni on his recent article 'Porous Bodies: Environmental Biopower and the Politics of Life in Ancient Rome', in Theory Culture and Society, 2020

'Impressionable Biologies: An interview with Maurizio Meloni' in Theory, Culture & Society, 23 October, 2019.

'Re-Thinking the History of Biopower', Discover Society, March 2019

'Epigenetics: Living with a permeable genome', Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, 7 August, 2019.

'New book sheds light on long history behind the rise of the field of epigenetics', Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, 6 Frebruary, 2019.

'Welfare poison: why everything you believed about the politics of nature-nurture may no longer be true' in Discover Society, 5 July, 2016. 

'If we’re not careful, epigenetics may bring back eugenic thinking' in The Conversation, 16 March, 2016. 

'C is for complexity. Why genetics doesn't outweigh teaching' in Discover Society, 6 January, 2014. 

Impressionable Bodies: Epigenetic Models of Plasticity in the Global South (ARC Future Fellowship)
This project aims to investigate how epigenetics, the science of how environmental factors switch genes on or off, is reshaping notions of the body, heredity and biological plasticity in the global South., Using case studies in Australia, India and South Africa this project comparatively analyses how epigenetics is mobilised in public debates on responsibility, risk and the amelioration of disadvantage. This project expects to ensure the policy translation of epigenetics maximises social benefits and reduces risks of social harm, particularly to vulnerable minority groups.

Epigenetics and Indigenous Australia (ARC Discovery Project, Emma Kowal Lead Investigator, Megan Warin Adelaide Investigator)
This project aims to investigate how epigenetics is being received by Indigenous Australians, and to identify the potential risks and opportunities that narratives of biosocial damage entail. Epigenetics is a rapidly evolving science concerned with how life experiences, such as trauma or stress, can modify DNA and be passed on to negatively affect children's (and possibly grandchildren's) health and development. This project will offer an understanding of the relationships between Indigenous health and epigenetics that will help Indigenous researchers, policymakers, and government bodies make well-informed decisions about the application and direction of this new science. The research will make a significant contribution to understanding how the interplay of biology, race, and society unfold at the intersection of different knowledge systems and at the forefront of technological progress.