Eva Šlesingerová

studied history and sociology and holds a Ph.D. (sociology) from the Department of Sociology at the Masaryk University, Czech Republic. Eva has worked as an Assistant Professor and Head of Social Anthropology program at Faculty of Social Sciences, at the Masaryk University. She has also been a researcher in project REPROBIOMED, which analysed Czech reproductive medicine. Currently Eva works as a Marie Curie Fellow on the ARTENGINE project in the Research Group “Biotechnologies, Nature and Society” (leader Prof. Thomas Lemke). Eva´s primary research interest and expertise is in the in application of ethnographical, anthropological, sociological and STS perspectives to the field of reproductive medicine, IVF technologies, infertility, and recombinant DNA technologies. She is also intrigued by biotechnological art (BioArt), sci.art and visual art. Her current research interests are related to the importance of narratives of hope and concerns, and governance of promises and risk for genome editing technologies. 

Publications

Core Publications

Šmídová, I., Šlesingerová, E., & Slepičková, L. (2015). Games of Life. Czech Reproductive Medicine. Sociological Perspectives, Masaryk University: Munipress.
                                              
Šlesingerová, E. (2014). Imaginace genů. Sociologická perspektiva [Imagination of Genes. A Sociological Perspective]. SLON: Prague Czech Sociological Publish House.
                 
Šlesingerová, E. (2018). Biopower Imagined. Biotechnological Art and Life Engineering. Social Science Information, SAGE: London, (57) 1, 59–76.

Šlesingerová, E. (2017). BioArt_ proplétání věcí, těl a technologií [BioArt_Entanglements of Things, Bodies and Technologies]. Sešit pro teorii, umění a příbuzné zóny, AVU, Prague. 
 
Šlesingerová, E. (2017). Život jako biotechnologické umělecké dílo. Antropologie a umění živého [Life as a Biotechnological Artwork: Anthropology, Art and Life]. Journal of Culture, (6) 1, 2–8.
 
Šlesingerová, E. a Slepičková, L., & Šmídová, I. (2012). Biomoc a reprodukční biomedicína: konceptuální inspirace pro český kontext [Biopower and Reproductive Medicine: Conceptual Inspiration for the Czech Context]. Czech Sociological Review, Praha: Sociologický ústav AV ČR, 48 (1), 85–106. 

Sourlová, A., & Šlesingerová, E. (2018). Post-Socialist eldercare in the Czech Republic: institutions, families, and the market. In Christensen, K., & Pilling, D. (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Social Care Work Around the World. Routledge International Handbooks, 159–170.

Most recent

Šlesingerová, E. (2019). In Risk We Trust/Editing Embryos and Mirroring Future Risks and Uncertainties. In Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy/ A European Journal. SPRINGER Netherlands.

Research

ARTENGINE (1 October 2017 – 30 September 2019, Supervisor: Thomas Lemke, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (Horizon 2020))
                 
The project addresses contemporary challenges in the field of reproductive genetic technologies from a sociological and anthropological perspective. It consists of analysis of two contexts, two European countries: Germany and the Czech Republic. The research is focused on the ethnographical and interview-based analysis of PGD (preimplantation genetic diagnosis) and genome editing, recombinant DNA technologies. There is a lack of reflection on the broader social and cultural context and on the ramifications of life engineering, specifically PGD in the Czech Republic, from the anthropological and sociological point of view. These issues remain unanalysed, contributing to a lack of understanding of the specific concerns of the life sciences in the Eastern European and post-socialist context. The research is guided by two main objectives. First, it explores the social and cultural background and the specific concerns of the use of PGD and genome editing in the European context. Second, it analyses the cultural and social practices and forms of agency, naming, defining, and dealing with engineered life within reproductive health issues. The research is based on a broad range of qualitative sociological and ethnographic methods, combining techniques such as semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observations, and critical discourse analysis as well as digital sociology and multi-sited ethnography.