New Directions in the Historiography of Genetics

The historiography of genetics has radically changed for the past few decades. Gregor Mendel’s Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden is no longer simply regarded as a study of the problem of heredity (e.g. Olby 1979; Gliboff 1999; Müller-Wille and Orel 2007; Shan 2021). The so-called “great rediscovery” story has been greatly reshaped (e.g. Meijer 1985; Rheinberger 1995; Simunek, Hoßfeld, and Breidbach 2011). The Mendelian-Biometrician controversy has been and is being re-examined (e.g. Sloan 2000; Radick 2005; Pence 2011; Shan 2020). The gene-centric narrative of the history of genetics has been seriously challenged (e.g. Keller 2000; Oyama 2000; Waters 2006). The significance and role of women in the history of genetics is being reassessed (e.g. Dietrich and Tambasco 2007; Richmond 2007; 2017). The history of developmental biology has been retold (e.g. Crowe et al. 2015). The role of non-Western geneticists and the networks they created is being established (e.g. Dietrich 2016). And there is an increasing interest in the role of the genome in the historiography of genetics (e.g. Lamm 2014; 2015). This special issue aims to explore and examine new approaches in the historiography of genetics by integrating the role of women, national and international peripheries and networks, development, genomics, and new frontiers in the methodologies now available to historians of biology.