Hello! My name is Gabriela ( You can call me Gabbie)
Hello everyone,
I am very happy to meet all of you! My name is Gabriela, and I am a yoga teacher and musician. I also volunteer at Coastal Roots Organic farm in Encinitas.
Reading Professor Lane’s post, I became more excited to take this class!
I am looking forward to delving more into discussing and finding the parallels between our time and the Victorian Era. I intend to study biology in college, and I am really interested in the field of epigenetics. I hope to become a geneticist or a genetic counselor. I have a dear friend and mentor who’s an geneticist, and she’s really influenced me.
I think it’s absolutely fascinating how you can trace history and ancestry through DNA and diseases. Epigenetics also provides tangible data that explains the correlation between poverty and disease over the course of history.
Impoverished and marginalized peoples today often are often forced (by pressures from our economic system) to live in toxic areas. Big energy companies and oil refineries often place their plants in impoverished areas and marginalized communities. They can do so because these companies have so much money and power.
I imagine science, technology, and manufacturing in the Victorian area can be examined through this same critical lens. Working conditions at one point were abysmal, and these difficult working conditions led to the formation of unions and such.
It would be a really interesting project to take on–examining the ethics of scientific advancement in the Victorian Era. Whenever technology is created, a conversation about equal access and the social ramifications of the technology is to be had.
They didn’t have DNA sequencing technology back in Victorian England, but I hope to do some research on the side to see what inferences can be made by tracing genes and diseases through generations.
This article is so fascinating. It talks about the cross-generation psychological effects of coal mining.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171211090803.htm
Have a wonderful day everyone!
Gabriela ( you can call me Gabbie)
Hi Gabbie – so glad you were able to get on the blog.
I love the ideas and enthusiasm you’ve expressed here. It occurs to me that in the parent course, your primary sources can relate to biology at every era if you wish. For the Honors class, you may want to look into T.H. Huxley, who I happen to be bumping into in my own research on the early years of H.G. Wells. You might particularly be interested in The Cell Theory, discussed here: https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/cell-theory-1853-thomas-henry-huxley.