Holtz Center Visiting Lecture Series

Crystal Biruk argues that possibility of “cooked data” haunts AIDS research by pointing to the ways in which data’s certainty might be unraveled by social and cultural impurities. “Cooking data” is a phrase used by Malawian fieldworkers administering surveys. Ethnographic focus on the actors on the front lines of AIDS knowledge production unravels cultural processes that weave together scientific endeavors, and shows how cooking not only threatens, but enhances the quality and value of data.