Interdisciplinary Hauntings

This introductory chapter illustrates how scientific culture is not, in fact, a “culture of no culture.” Rather, it argues that categories of gender, race, class, sexuality, and nation were everywhere, constantly shaping science, its practitioners, its cultures, and scientific knowledge. Thus, the chapter traces the author's own scientific trajectories, moving from a disciplinary world of natures and cultures into an interdisciplinary one of “naturecultures.” It discusses the problem of methodology and contextualizes this study within the realm of feminist science and technology studies (FSTS), revealing the vast complexity of naturecultures which, furthermore, are underscored by the metaphor of the supernatural as “unfinished business.” The chapter asserts that ghosts, rather than a superstitious legacy of a past, are a haunting reminder of an ignored past.