Kaushik Sunder Rajan is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at UC-Irvine. He was initially trained as a biologist, obtained his Ph.D. in the History and Social Studies of Science and Technology, and works on the anthropology of science and technology. Before joining UC-Irvine, he served as a post-doctoral fellow in the Program on Science, Technology and Society at the Kennedy School.
His recent book titled Biocapital: The Constitution of Post-Genomic Life (2006) is a multi-sited ethnography of emergent genomic research and drug development marketplaces in the United States and India. On the other hand, it traces the historical emergence of what he calls biocapital in the late 20th century, which asks questions of the nature and manner of the co-production of economic and epistemic value in the life sciences today. In the former register, Sunder Rajan’s work has followed a number of actors — scientists, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and policymakers — involved in genomics research and market development in a range of sites in the US and India (in the US, primarily in the Bay Area; in India, primarily in Delhi, Bombay and Hyderabad). In the latter register, his work engages social theories of epistemology, political economy, ethics, subjectivity, language and value (most directly the analyses of Karl Marx, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida), in order to provide ways to think about a current moment in world history that is significantly shaped by technoscientific capitalism.