Liminali in sé. Studi di donne, natura e scienza

Since the 1970s, studies on gender and women in science –typically practised by women– have significantly supported the spread and establishment of 'science studies', and just as typically they have been underrated. Known as STS –originally for Science, Technology and Society, now often for Science and Technology Studies– since the 1930s those studies have developed beyond disciplinary boundaries by proposing integrated approaches for an understanding of science and technology over time. STS deal with interactions among science, culture, and shared social values, including those of sex/gender, as perceived already by Virginia Woolf and other female scholars since the 18th century, such as Clotilde Tambroni. With the aim of reconstructing fragments of a history of women’s contribution to an understanding of those hybrid phenomena, the present article turns to the work of a number of female scientists who, in recent decades, practicing liminal approaches have succeeded in bringing into the lab, together with feminist politics, a dialogue between the natural sciences and the social sciences. A dialogue that, since the 1980s, has been crucial for bringing us beyond the false nature vs. culture dilemma.