Epigenomic Stories: Evidence of Harm and the Social Justice Promises and Perils of Environmental Epigenetics

Abstract

This article develops the concept of epigenomic stories to analyze how scientists describe and study the relationships between environmental epigenetics, health inequities, and social justice. Based on a multisited ethnography of epigenetic knowledge production and its circulation across laboratories, clinics, and communities in the United States and Canada between 2016 and 2021, we build on Black feminist and science studies scholarship to convey the racial, gender, and epistemic consequences of epigenomic stories. We argue that these stories reflect how scientists position epigenetics as a way of providing biological evidence of social harms and shifting responsibilities from individuals to broader structures. Yet these stories also reflect the limits of epigenetic methods and models in effectively capturing and addressing lived experiences of oppression. Thus, while scientists envision epigenetics as a resource for social change, they do so in ways that privilege biological ways of knowing. In analyzing the values and power relations embedded in these practices, we argue that epigenomic stories reflect what is at stake socially, politically, and materially when we tell stories with science. We contend that efforts to mobilize epigenetic knowledge for social justice must therefore center marginalized peoples’ knowledge and experiences and address how racism and sexism shape science and its social consequences.