Building New Bioethical Practices through Feminist Pedagogies

The development of a new field such as synthetic biology provides an opportunity to establish new models for bioethics. In this paper, I describe an experimental course aimed at developing bioethical practices through feminist pedagogy. Based in principles of action-orientation and self-reflective learning, the course provided students from diverse fields with the opportunity to work together at the intersections of science, ethics, and community. As greater interdisciplinarity spreads across campuses, I argue that feminist studies departments are well positioned to transform the production of scientific knowledge through bioethics education based in social justice.