Lorna Weir
Professor
YUFA Equity Officer
Adjunct Professor, Bloombery School of Medicine, University of Toronto
Office: Founders College, 310
Phone: (416)736-2100 Ext: 33198
Email: lweir@yorku.ca
Primary website: http://yorku.academia.edu/LornaWeir
Lorna Weir is Professor of Sociology at York University (Toronto). She specializes in health and social theory. Her books include Pregnancy, Risk and Biopolitics: On the Threshold of the Living Subject (Routledge 2006) and Global Public Health Vigilance: Creating a World on Alert (Routledge 2010, Lorna Weir and Eric Mykhalovskiy). Her current research is on biopolitics, technology and the proper (with an empirical focus on the integration of security into genomics) and sacrifice in biopolitics.
Degrees
Ph.D., York UniversityAppointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
YUFA Equity Officer Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Feral Feminisms (an inter-media, peer-reviewed, open access journal), 2013 - Editorial Consultant, Feminist Studies (University of Maryland), 1996 –
Research Interests
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
1. I am continuing with my research and writing trajectory on biosecurity and genomics, projecting 2 articles during 2015 on synthetic biology and classified scientific research.
-
Summary:
In Fall-Winter 2014-2015 my focus is on social theory and biopolitics, exploring negative power and sacrificial practices.
-
Summary:
I am putting together a collaborative project on contemporary techniques of normalization, with funding applications in Fall 2015.
Weir, Lorna and Eric Mykhalovskiy (2010) Global Public Health Vigilance: Creating a World on Alert. New York: Routledge. Series: Science, Technology and Society.
Weir, Lorna (2006) Pregnancy, Risk and Biopolitics: On the Threshold of the Living Subject. Series: Transformations: Thinking Through Feminism. London and New York: Routledge.
Weir, Lorna ed. (1997) Governing Medically Assisted Human Reproduction. Toronto: Centre of Criminology, University of Toronto
Richer, Stephen and Lorna Weir eds. (1995) Beyond Political Correctness: The Future of the Canadian Academy, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Weir, Lorna (2014)“Inventing Global Public Health Security,” in Simon Rushton and Jeremy Youde eds., The Routledge Handbook of Health Security. London: Routledge. http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415645478/
Weir, Lorna and Jasmin Habib (2006), “A Critical Feminist Analysis of The Report of the Canadian Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies." In Pat Armstrong and M. Patricia Connelly eds., Feminism, Political Economy and the State (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press): 327-343. Reprint of article with same title in Studies in Political Economy 1997 (52): 137-154.
Weir, Lorna and Eric Mykhalovskiy (2006) “The Geopolitics of Global Public Health Surveillance in the Twenty- First Century,” in Alison Bashford ed., Medicine at the Border: Disease, Globalization and Security, 1850 to the Present. New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 240-263. (co-authored)
Weir, Lorna (1998) "Pregnancy Ultrasound in Maternal Discourse," in Margrit Shildrick and Janet Price eds., Vital Signs: Feminist Reconfigurations of the Bio/Logical. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press: 78-103
O’Brien, Carol-Anne and Weir, Lorna (1995) "Lesbians and Gay Men Inside and Outside Families," in Ann Duffy and Nancy Mandell (eds.), Reconstructing Canadian Families. Toronto: Harcourt Brace, 1995: 111-140
Weir, Lorna (1995) "PC Then and Now: Resignifying Political Correctness," in Stephen Richer and Lorna Weir (eds.), Beyond Political Correctness: The Future of the Canadian Academy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press: 51-87.
Richer, Stephen and Lorna Weir (1995) "Political Correctness and the Inclusive University”, in Stephen Richer and Lorna Weir (eds.), Beyond Political Correctness: The Future of the Canadian Academy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press: 3-20
Weir, Lorna and Leo Casey (1990) "Subverting Power in Sexuality," In Karen V. Hansen and Ilene Philipson (eds.), Women, Class, and the Feminist Imagination. Philadelphia: Temple University Press: 460-475.
Weir, Lorna (1987) "Socialist Feminism and the Politics of Sexuality," in Heather Jon Maroney and Meg Luxton (eds.), Women's Work, Women's Struggles: Feminism and Political Economy. Toronto: Methuen: 69-84
Weir, Lorna (2013) “Beyond Biopolitics: Essays on the Governance of Life and Death”. Canadian Journal of Sociology 38 (3): 413-416. (Patricia Tincineto Clough and Craig Willse eds., Beyond Biopolitics: Essays on the Governance of Life and Death
Weir, Lorna (2013) “Roberto Esposito’s Political Philosophy of the Gift.” Angelaki 18(3): 155-167.
Cattapan, Alana, Margrit Eichler and Lorna Weir (2013) “The Governance Gap in Assisted Human Reproduction.” CWHN Network Magazine. Available at: http://www.cwhn.ca/en/network/thegovernancegap
Selgelid, Michael and Lorna Weir (2010) "The Mousepox Experience: An Interview with Ron Jackson and Ian Ramshaw on Dual-Use Research," EMBO Reports 11 (1): 1-7.
Weir, Lorna and Michael Selgelid (2009) "Professionalization as a Governance Strategy for Synthetic Biology," Systems and Synthetic Biology. Special issue on Societal Issues pertaining to Synthetic Biology. 3(1-4), December: 91-97. DOI 10.1007/s11693-009-9037-4.
Singer, Brian and Lorna Weir (2008) “Sovereignty, Governance and the Political,” Thesis 11 94 (August): 49-71. (co-authored)
Weir, Lorna (2008) “The Concept of Truth Regime,” Canadian Journal of Sociology 33 (2): 367-389. (co-authored)
Singer, Brian and Lorna Weir (2007) “Politics and Sovereign Power: Considerations on Foucault,” European Journal of Social Theory 9 (4): 443-465 (co-authored).
Weir, Lorna (2006) “Folgen des Risikofaktors,” Deutsche Hebammenzeitscrift 5: 53-56 (translation)
Mykhalovskiy, Eric and Lorna Weir (2006) “The Global Public Health Intelligence Network and Early Warning Outbreak Detection: A Canadian Contribution to Global Health," Canadian Journal of Public Health 97 (1) Global Health Issue: 42-44. (co-authored)
Curtis, Bruce and Lorna Weir (2005) “Crisis Talk: Comments on McLaughlin's “Canada's Impossible Science”,” Canadian Journal of Sociology. 30.4, Fall: 503-11. (co-authored)
Mykhalovskiy, Eric and Lorna Weir (2004) “The Problem of Evidence-Based Medicine: Directions for Social Science,” Social Science and Medicine 59 (5): 1059-1069. (co-authored)
Weir, Lorna and Bruce Curtis (2003) “Reply to O’Malley and Hunt,” Society/Société 27 (2), 2003: 91-95.
Curtis, Bruce and Lorna Weir (2002) “The Succession Question in English Canadian Sociology,” Society/Société 26 (3): 3-13. (co-authored)
Weir, Lorna (1998) "Cultural Intertexts and Scientific Rationality: The Case of Pregnancy Ultrasound," Economy and Society 27 (2&3): 249-258
O'Malley, Pat, Lorna Weir, Clifford Shearing (1997) "Governmentality, Criticism, Politics," Economy and Society Fall 26 (4): 501-517.
Weir, Lorna and Jasmin Habib (1997) “A Critical Feminist Analysis of The Report of the Canadian Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies," Studies in Political Economy 1997 (52): 137-154 (with Jasmin Habib as second author). Reprinted with same title in Pat Armstrong and M. Patricia Connelly, eds. (1999) Feminism, Political Economy and the State: Contested Terrain (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press): 327-343.
Valverde, Mariana and Lorna Weir (1997) "Regulating New Reproductive and Genetic Technologies: A Feminist View of Recent Canadian Government Initiatives," Feminist Studies 23(1), Spring: 419-423
Weir, Lorna (1996) "Recent Developments in the Government of Pregnancy," Economy and Society 25(3): 372-392
Weir, Lorna (1995) "Social Movement Activism in the Formation of Ontario New Democratic Party Policy on Abortion, 1982-1984," Labour/Le travail 35, Spring: 163-193.
Weir, Lorna (1995) “Contacts between Richard Maurice Bucke and Edward Carpenter: Cosmic Consciousness and the Love of Comrades," Journal of Canadian Studies 30 (2): 39-57
Weir, Lorna (1995) “George Smith, 1935-1994," Centre/Fold 8, Spring: 5-6.
Weir, Lorna (1994) "Left Popular Politics in Canadian Feminist Abortion Organizing, 1982-1991," Feminist Studies 20 (2), Summer: 249-274
Weir, Lorna (1993) "The Wanderings of the Linguistic Turn in Anglophone Historical Writing,” Journal of Historical Sociology 6 (2), June: 227-245
Weir, Lorna (1993) "Limitations of New Social Movement Analysis," Studies in Political Economy 40, Spring: 73-102.
Weir, Lorna (1991) “Anti-Racist Feminist Pedagogy: Self Observed,” Resources for Feminist Research 20 (3/4, Fall-Winter): 19-26
Valverde, Mariana and Lorna Weir (1988) “The Struggles of the Immoral: Preliminary Remarks on Moral Regulation,” Resources for Feminist Research 17 (3), Sept.: 31-34 (co-authored). Reprinted in Amanda Glasbeck ed., (2006) Moral Regulation and Governance in Canada (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press): 75-84.
Weir, Lorna (1987) "Women and the State," Feminist Review 26, July: 93-104
Weir, Lorna (2012) "Comments on "Give and Take? Human Bodies in Medicine and Research." Consultation Papers, Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Available at Website of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (Oxford, UK). Available at http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/sites/default/files/files/Lorna%20Weir,%20Professor%20of%20Sociology%20and%20Health,%20York%20University,%20Toronto,%20Canada.pdf
Weir, Lorna (1994) An Analysis of Proceed with Care: The Report of the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies. Ottawa: Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women.
Weir, Lorna (1991) Brief to the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies. Ottawa: Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women.
Miller, Fiona, Lorna Weir, Roxanne Mykitiuk, Patricia Lee and Sari Tudiver eds. (2000) The Gender of Genetic Futures: The Canadian Biotechnology Strategy, Women and Health. National Network on Environments and Women’s Health (Health Canada Centre of Excellence in Women’s Health), Working Paper Series, September, York University. Currently available online at www.cwhn.ca/groups/biotech/availdocs/full-doc-2.pdf (209 pages). (Accessed May 2008)
"Rising Up Strong: Women in the 1980's." Two 30-minute videotapes produced and directed with Professor Linda Briskin (Faculty of Social Sciences, York University).
Approach to Teaching
I enjoy classrooms characterized by high quality, engaged dialogue when students listen to each other. My courses are designed to include short formal lectures followed by classroom discussion, returning again to the same dyadic pattern. Much of the course design focuses on social processes with which students are familiar, analyzing that experience through sociological concepts and arguments to higher levels of theoretical abstraction. My students tell me that they can see in their daily lives the social processes we study in class together. This is a critical sociology that begins with but goes beyond experience.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2023 | AP/SOCI2040 6.0 | C | Sociological Theory | LECT |
Lorna Weir is Professor of Sociology at York University (Toronto). She specializes in health and social theory. Her books include Pregnancy, Risk and Biopolitics: On the Threshold of the Living Subject (Routledge 2006) and Global Public Health Vigilance: Creating a World on Alert (Routledge 2010, Lorna Weir and Eric Mykhalovskiy). Her current research is on biopolitics, technology and the proper (with an empirical focus on the integration of security into genomics) and sacrifice in biopolitics.
Degrees
Ph.D., York UniversityAppointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
YUFA Equity Officer Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Feral Feminisms (an inter-media, peer-reviewed, open access journal), 2013 - Editorial Consultant, Feminist Studies (University of Maryland), 1996 –
Research Interests
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
1. I am continuing with my research and writing trajectory on biosecurity and genomics, projecting 2 articles during 2015 on synthetic biology and classified scientific research.
Project Type: FundedRole: PI
-
Summary:
In Fall-Winter 2014-2015 my focus is on social theory and biopolitics, exploring negative power and sacrificial practices.
Project Type: Self-Funded-
Summary:
I am putting together a collaborative project on contemporary techniques of normalization, with funding applications in Fall 2015.
All Publications
Weir, Lorna (2014)“Inventing Global Public Health Security,” in Simon Rushton and Jeremy Youde eds., The Routledge Handbook of Health Security. London: Routledge. http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415645478/
Weir, Lorna and Jasmin Habib (2006), “A Critical Feminist Analysis of The Report of the Canadian Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies." In Pat Armstrong and M. Patricia Connelly eds., Feminism, Political Economy and the State (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press): 327-343. Reprint of article with same title in Studies in Political Economy 1997 (52): 137-154.
Weir, Lorna and Eric Mykhalovskiy (2006) “The Geopolitics of Global Public Health Surveillance in the Twenty- First Century,” in Alison Bashford ed., Medicine at the Border: Disease, Globalization and Security, 1850 to the Present. New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 240-263. (co-authored)
Weir, Lorna (1998) "Pregnancy Ultrasound in Maternal Discourse," in Margrit Shildrick and Janet Price eds., Vital Signs: Feminist Reconfigurations of the Bio/Logical. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press: 78-103
O’Brien, Carol-Anne and Weir, Lorna (1995) "Lesbians and Gay Men Inside and Outside Families," in Ann Duffy and Nancy Mandell (eds.), Reconstructing Canadian Families. Toronto: Harcourt Brace, 1995: 111-140
Weir, Lorna (1995) "PC Then and Now: Resignifying Political Correctness," in Stephen Richer and Lorna Weir (eds.), Beyond Political Correctness: The Future of the Canadian Academy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press: 51-87.
Richer, Stephen and Lorna Weir (1995) "Political Correctness and the Inclusive University”, in Stephen Richer and Lorna Weir (eds.), Beyond Political Correctness: The Future of the Canadian Academy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press: 3-20
Weir, Lorna and Leo Casey (1990) "Subverting Power in Sexuality," In Karen V. Hansen and Ilene Philipson (eds.), Women, Class, and the Feminist Imagination. Philadelphia: Temple University Press: 460-475.
Weir, Lorna (1987) "Socialist Feminism and the Politics of Sexuality," in Heather Jon Maroney and Meg Luxton (eds.), Women's Work, Women's Struggles: Feminism and Political Economy. Toronto: Methuen: 69-84
Weir, Lorna (2013) “Beyond Biopolitics: Essays on the Governance of Life and Death”. Canadian Journal of Sociology 38 (3): 413-416. (Patricia Tincineto Clough and Craig Willse eds., Beyond Biopolitics: Essays on the Governance of Life and Death
Weir, Lorna and Eric Mykhalovskiy (2010) Global Public Health Vigilance: Creating a World on Alert. New York: Routledge. Series: Science, Technology and Society.
Weir, Lorna (2006) Pregnancy, Risk and Biopolitics: On the Threshold of the Living Subject. Series: Transformations: Thinking Through Feminism. London and New York: Routledge.
Weir, Lorna ed. (1997) Governing Medically Assisted Human Reproduction. Toronto: Centre of Criminology, University of Toronto
Richer, Stephen and Lorna Weir eds. (1995) Beyond Political Correctness: The Future of the Canadian Academy, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Weir, Lorna (2013) “Roberto Esposito’s Political Philosophy of the Gift.” Angelaki 18(3): 155-167.
Cattapan, Alana, Margrit Eichler and Lorna Weir (2013) “The Governance Gap in Assisted Human Reproduction.” CWHN Network Magazine. Available at: http://www.cwhn.ca/en/network/thegovernancegap
Selgelid, Michael and Lorna Weir (2010) "The Mousepox Experience: An Interview with Ron Jackson and Ian Ramshaw on Dual-Use Research," EMBO Reports 11 (1): 1-7.
Weir, Lorna and Michael Selgelid (2009) "Professionalization as a Governance Strategy for Synthetic Biology," Systems and Synthetic Biology. Special issue on Societal Issues pertaining to Synthetic Biology. 3(1-4), December: 91-97. DOI 10.1007/s11693-009-9037-4.
Singer, Brian and Lorna Weir (2008) “Sovereignty, Governance and the Political,” Thesis 11 94 (August): 49-71. (co-authored)
Weir, Lorna (2008) “The Concept of Truth Regime,” Canadian Journal of Sociology 33 (2): 367-389. (co-authored)
Singer, Brian and Lorna Weir (2007) “Politics and Sovereign Power: Considerations on Foucault,” European Journal of Social Theory 9 (4): 443-465 (co-authored).
Weir, Lorna (2006) “Folgen des Risikofaktors,” Deutsche Hebammenzeitscrift 5: 53-56 (translation)
Mykhalovskiy, Eric and Lorna Weir (2006) “The Global Public Health Intelligence Network and Early Warning Outbreak Detection: A Canadian Contribution to Global Health," Canadian Journal of Public Health 97 (1) Global Health Issue: 42-44. (co-authored)
Curtis, Bruce and Lorna Weir (2005) “Crisis Talk: Comments on McLaughlin's “Canada's Impossible Science”,” Canadian Journal of Sociology. 30.4, Fall: 503-11. (co-authored)
Mykhalovskiy, Eric and Lorna Weir (2004) “The Problem of Evidence-Based Medicine: Directions for Social Science,” Social Science and Medicine 59 (5): 1059-1069. (co-authored)
Weir, Lorna and Bruce Curtis (2003) “Reply to O’Malley and Hunt,” Society/Société 27 (2), 2003: 91-95.
Curtis, Bruce and Lorna Weir (2002) “The Succession Question in English Canadian Sociology,” Society/Société 26 (3): 3-13. (co-authored)
Weir, Lorna (1998) "Cultural Intertexts and Scientific Rationality: The Case of Pregnancy Ultrasound," Economy and Society 27 (2&3): 249-258
O'Malley, Pat, Lorna Weir, Clifford Shearing (1997) "Governmentality, Criticism, Politics," Economy and Society Fall 26 (4): 501-517.
Weir, Lorna and Jasmin Habib (1997) “A Critical Feminist Analysis of The Report of the Canadian Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies," Studies in Political Economy 1997 (52): 137-154 (with Jasmin Habib as second author). Reprinted with same title in Pat Armstrong and M. Patricia Connelly, eds. (1999) Feminism, Political Economy and the State: Contested Terrain (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press): 327-343.
Valverde, Mariana and Lorna Weir (1997) "Regulating New Reproductive and Genetic Technologies: A Feminist View of Recent Canadian Government Initiatives," Feminist Studies 23(1), Spring: 419-423
Weir, Lorna (1996) "Recent Developments in the Government of Pregnancy," Economy and Society 25(3): 372-392
Weir, Lorna (1995) "Social Movement Activism in the Formation of Ontario New Democratic Party Policy on Abortion, 1982-1984," Labour/Le travail 35, Spring: 163-193.
Weir, Lorna (1995) “Contacts between Richard Maurice Bucke and Edward Carpenter: Cosmic Consciousness and the Love of Comrades," Journal of Canadian Studies 30 (2): 39-57
Weir, Lorna (1995) “George Smith, 1935-1994," Centre/Fold 8, Spring: 5-6.
Weir, Lorna (1994) "Left Popular Politics in Canadian Feminist Abortion Organizing, 1982-1991," Feminist Studies 20 (2), Summer: 249-274
Weir, Lorna (1993) "The Wanderings of the Linguistic Turn in Anglophone Historical Writing,” Journal of Historical Sociology 6 (2), June: 227-245
Weir, Lorna (1993) "Limitations of New Social Movement Analysis," Studies in Political Economy 40, Spring: 73-102.
Weir, Lorna (1991) “Anti-Racist Feminist Pedagogy: Self Observed,” Resources for Feminist Research 20 (3/4, Fall-Winter): 19-26
Valverde, Mariana and Lorna Weir (1988) “The Struggles of the Immoral: Preliminary Remarks on Moral Regulation,” Resources for Feminist Research 17 (3), Sept.: 31-34 (co-authored). Reprinted in Amanda Glasbeck ed., (2006) Moral Regulation and Governance in Canada (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press): 75-84.
Weir, Lorna (1987) "Women and the State," Feminist Review 26, July: 93-104
Weir, Lorna (2012) "Comments on "Give and Take? Human Bodies in Medicine and Research." Consultation Papers, Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Available at Website of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (Oxford, UK). Available at http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/sites/default/files/files/Lorna%20Weir,%20Professor%20of%20Sociology%20and%20Health,%20York%20University,%20Toronto,%20Canada.pdf
Weir, Lorna (1994) An Analysis of Proceed with Care: The Report of the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies. Ottawa: Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women.
Weir, Lorna (1991) Brief to the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies. Ottawa: Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women.
Miller, Fiona, Lorna Weir, Roxanne Mykitiuk, Patricia Lee and Sari Tudiver eds. (2000) The Gender of Genetic Futures: The Canadian Biotechnology Strategy, Women and Health. National Network on Environments and Women’s Health (Health Canada Centre of Excellence in Women’s Health), Working Paper Series, September, York University. Currently available online at www.cwhn.ca/groups/biotech/availdocs/full-doc-2.pdf (209 pages). (Accessed May 2008)
"Rising Up Strong: Women in the 1980's." Two 30-minute videotapes produced and directed with Professor Linda Briskin (Faculty of Social Sciences, York University).
Approach to Teaching
I enjoy classrooms characterized by high quality, engaged dialogue when students listen to each other. My courses are designed to include short formal lectures followed by classroom discussion, returning again to the same dyadic pattern. Much of the course design focuses on social processes with which students are familiar, analyzing that experience through sociological concepts and arguments to higher levels of theoretical abstraction. My students tell me that they can see in their daily lives the social processes we study in class together. This is a critical sociology that begins with but goes beyond experience.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2023 | AP/SOCI2040 6.0 | C | Sociological Theory | LECT |
