Philip Thurtle: Difference between revisions

'''Phillip Thurtle''' is a [[historian]], [[biologist]], academic, and author. He is a Professor in the Departments of the Comparative History of Ideas and History and an Adjunct Professor in Digital and Experimental Arts at the [[University of Washington]].<ref name=aaa>{{citeCite web|url=https://chid.washington.edu/people/phillip-thurtle|title=UniversityPhillip Thurtle &#124; Comparative History of Washington–PhillipIdeas Thurtle&#124; University of Washington|website=chid.washington.edu}}</ref>

Thurtle's research focuses on the emotional and experiential aspects of media, the impact of information processing technologies on biomedical research, and theories of innovation in the life sciences.<ref name=ggg>{{citeCite web|url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pF6v7moAAAAJ&hl=en|title=Google Scholar–PhillipPhillip Thurtle|website=scholar.google.com}}</ref> His publications comprise research articles and books including ''Data Made Flesh: Embodying Information'', ''The Emergence of Genetic Rationality: Space, Time, and Information in American Biology'' and ''Biology in the Grid: Graphic Design and the Envisioning of the Life''. He has received awards from the University of Washington, such as the 2013 Distinguished Teaching Award<ref name=dta>{{citeCite web|url=https://chid.washington.edu/news/2013/04/10/professor-phillip-thurtle-awarded-2013-uw-distinguished-teaching-award|title=Professor Phillip Thurtle Awarded 2013 UW Distinguished Teaching Award &#124; Comparative History of Ideas &#124; University of Washington|website=chid.washington.edu}}</ref> and the 2020 Undergraduate Research Mentor Award,<ref name=urm>{{citeCite web|url=https://www.washington.edu/undergradresearch/s/mentor-awardees/past-research-mentor-awardees/|title=Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Award–PastPast Awardees}}</ref> along with the Digital Humanities Fellowship from the [[Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities]] in 2015 and 2018.<ref name=wcs>{{citeCite web|url=https://simpsoncenter.org/archive/summer-fellowships?fellow=831|title=Digital Humanities Summer Fellowships Cohort Archive &#124; Simpson Center for the Humanities|website=simpsoncenter.org}}</ref>

Thurtle is a Series Co-editor of ''In Vivo: Cultural Mediations of Biomedicine'', and is a member of the editorial board of ''Humanities Net'' as well as the advisory board of ''Inflexions: A Journal for Research-Creation''.<ref>{{citeCite web|url=https://www.inflexions.org/participants.html|title=Inflexions–AdvisoryInflexions: BoardParticipants|website=www.inflexions.org}}</ref>

Thurtle graduated with a Bachelor of Science from [[Evergreen State College]] in 1983 and was later enrolled at [[Stanford University]], where he received a Master of Arts in American History in 1994, followed by a PhD in History and Philosophy of Technology and Science in 2002. During this time, he began his academic career as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Washington School of Communications from 1997 to 2001.<ref>{{citeCite web|url=https://history.washington.edu/people/phillip-thurtle|title=Phillip Thurtle &#124; Department of History–PhillipHistory Thurtle&#124; University of Washington|website=history.washington.edu}}</ref>

Thurtle continued his career as a Visiting Assistant Professor for Communication and the Comparative History of Ideas Program at the University of Washington, while also being an Assistant Professor of [[Sociology]] and [[Anthropology]] with appointments in the Graduate Faculty in Environmental Studies and the Institute of Political Economy at [[Carleton University]] from 2002 to 2005.<ref>{{citeCite web|url=https://archie.library.carleton.ca/index.php/thurtle-phillip-sociology-and-anthropology|title=File 1495 - Thurtle, Phillip (Sociology and Anthropology) - Archives and Research Collections|website=archie.library.carleton.ca}}</ref> In 2005, he was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Washington in Comparative History of Ideas and History, later assuming the role of Associate Professor in 2008 and has been serving as Professor since 2018.<ref name=aaa/>

Thurtle served as Director of the Comparative History of Ideas program from 2010 to 2013, followed by Acting Director from 2016 to 2017.<ref>{{citeCite web|url=https://chid.washington.edu/news/2019/06/05/message-chids-director-phillip-thurtle?_gl=1*8q9982*_ga*MTY1ODYwMDEwNy4xNzE3MzkwNTg4*_ga_3T65WK0BM8*MTcxNzM5ODY3OC4xLjEuMTcxNzM5OTMyNS4wLjAuMA..*_ga_JLHM9WH4JV*MTcxNzM5ODY3OC4xLjEuMTcxNzM5OTMyNS4wLjAuMA..|title=A Message from CHID's Director, Phillip Thurtle &#124; Comparative History of Ideas &#124; University of Washington|website=chid.washington.edu}}</ref>

Thurtle has contributed to the fields of [[history of science and technology]] and molecular immunology by investigating genetic thinking, the influence of information on the body, and the impact of graphic design on biological understanding and societal beliefs.<ref name=ggg/> His book, ''The Emergence of Genetic Rationality: Space, Time, and Information in American Biological Science, 1870-1920'', explored the transformations required to enable genetic thinking, incorporating insights from [[social theory]], media theory, and [[intellectual history]], and was called a "fascinating and wide-ranging book" by academic [[Michael R. Dietrich|Michael Dietrich]].<ref>{{citeCite web|url=httpshttp://www.jstor.org/stable/40801956|title=Review:The Emergence of Genetic Rationality|author=Dietrich, Michael|year=2010|journal=Journal of the History of Biology|volume=43|issue=3|pages=621-622|via=JSTOR}}</ref> He co-edited two books with Robert Mitchell focusing on how information reshapes the human body: ''Semiotic Flesh: Information and the Human Body'' and ''Data Made Flesh: Embodying Information'' as well as co-authored an interactive DVD ''Biofutures: Owning Body Parts and Information'' with Mitchell and Helen J. Burgess. In a review for the ''[[MIT Press]]'', [[Eugene Thacker]] stated, "''Data Made Flesh'' is interesting because I believe it asks us to begin to think beyond the phenomenological and anthropomorphic vantage point of "embodiment.""<ref>{{citeCite webjournal|url=https://doidirect.orgmit.edu/leon/article/38/5/429/44771|title=Leonardo Reviews|first=Eugene|last=Thacker|date=October 2, 2005|journal=Leonardo|volume=38|issue=5|pages=429–429|via=CrossRef|doi=10.1162/leon.2005.38.5.429|title=Data Made Flesh: Embodying Information}}</ref>

In 2018, Thurtle authored ''Biology in the Grid: Graphic Design and the Envisioning of Life'', examining how evolutionary and developmental biology research, as well as popular culture, depict cellular and cultural transformations.<ref>{{citeCite web|url=https://immaterialwings.org/|title=Living Fables /- Losing My Wings|website=immaterialwings.org}}</ref> Amy Ione remarked, "It impressively conveys how contemporary tools that capture motion have altered traditional distinctions between time, space, linearity, and so forth."<ref>{{citeCite webjournal|url=https://doidirect.org/10mit.1162edu/leon_r_01898leon/article/53/3/343-346/96893|title=Biology in the Grid: Graphic Design and the Envisioning of Life by Phillip Thurtle. University of Minnesota Press, Posthumanities Volume 46, Minneapolis, MN, 2018. 272 pp, illus. Trade, paper. ISBN: 978-1517902773; ISBN: 1517902770.|first=Amy|last=Ione|date=May 2, 2020|journal=Leonardo|volume=53|issue=3|pages=343–346|via=CrossRef|doi=10.1162/leon_r_01898}}</ref>

Thurtle's publications have also addressed topics such as superheroes and embodiment, biofeedback in music, the naturalist and eugenicist [[David Starr Jordan]], and the plant hybridizer [[Luther Burbank]].<ref>{{citeCite webjournal|url=https://doimuse.org/10jhu.1353edu/lm.2008.0005pub/1/article/230552|title=The Poetics of Life: Luther Burbank, Horticultural Novelties, and the Spaces of Heredity|first=Phillip|last=Thurtle|date=July 2, 2007|journal=Literature and Medicine|volume=26|issue=1|pages=1–24|via=Project MUSE|doi=10.1353/lm.2008.0005}}</ref> Together with Adam Nocek, he edited a special issue of ''Inflexions'' titled "Animating Biophilosophy," which looked into the changing relationship between thought and life in the late twentieth century.<ref>{{citeCite web|url=https://www.inflexions.org/n7_thurtle.html|title=Inflexions 7: Animating Biophilosophy: Animation and Vitality by Phillip Thurtle|website=www.inflexions.org}}</ref> In another collaborative study, he argued that superhero comic books act as a "logic of the anomalous," allowing readers to explore societal anomalies and extreme experiences, connecting political economy, media theory, and science and technology studies.<ref>{{citeCite webjournal|url=https://doimuse.org/10jhu.1353edu/con.0.0038pub/1/article/262126|title=The Acme Novelty Library: Comic Books, Repetition, and the Return of the New|first1=Phillip|last1=Thurtle|first2=Robert|last2=Mitchell|date=July 2, 2007|journal=Configurations|volume=15|issue=3|pages=267–297|via=Project MUSE|doi=10.1353/con.0.0038}}</ref> His research also showed how [[Gilded Age]] trotting horse breeders' practices influenced the development of genetic reasoning in the U.S., linking industrial growth to the rise of eugenic and genetic research.<ref>{{citeCite webjournal|url=https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014519404949|title=Harnessing Heredity in Gilded Age America: Middle Class Mores and Industrial Breeding in a Cultural Context|first=Phillip|last=Thurtle|date=March 1, 2002|journal=Journal of the History of Biology|volume=35|issue=1|pages=43–78|via=Springer Link|doi=10.1023/A:1014519404949}}</ref>