How Like a Leaf: An Interview with Donna Haraway

by Donna J. Haraway, Thyrza Goodeve

The author of four seminal works on science and culture, Donna Haraway here speaks for the first time in a direct and non-academic voice. How Like a Leaf will be a welcome inside view of the author's thought.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Science, Philosophy, Theory

198 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 3, 1999

About the author

Donna J. Haraway is an American Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness Department and Feminist Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, United States. She is a prominent scholar in the field of science and technology studies, described in the early 1990s as a "feminist, rather loosely a postmodernist". Haraway is the author of numerous foundational books and essays that bring together questions of science and feminism, such as "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century" (1985) and "Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective". Additionally, for her contributions to the intersection of information technology and feminist theory, Haraway is widely cited in works related to Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Her Situated Knowledges and Cyborg Manifesto publications in particular, have sparked discussion within the HCI community regarding framing the positionality from which research and systems are designed. She is also a leading scholar in contemporary ecofeminism, associated with post-humanism and new materialism movements. Her work criticizes anthropocentrism, emphasizes the self-organizing powers of nonhuman processes, and explores dissonant relations between those processes and cultural practices, rethinking sources of ethics.

Haraway has taught Women's Studies and the History of Science at the University of Hawaii and Johns Hopkins University. Haraway's works have contributed to the study of both human-machine and human-animal relations. Her works have sparked debate in primatology, philosophy, and developmental biology. Haraway participated in a collaborative exchange with the feminist theorist Lynn Randolph from 1990 to 1996. Their engagement with specific ideas relating to feminism, technoscience, political consciousness, and other social issues, formed the images and narrative of Haraway's book Modest_Witness for which she received the Society for Social Studies of Science's (4S) Ludwik Fleck Prize in 1999. In 2000, Haraway was awarded the Society for Social Studies of Science's John Desmond Bernal Prize for her distinguished contributions to the field of science and technology studies. Haraway serves on the advisory board for numerous academic journals, including differences, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Contemporary Women's Writing, and Environmental Humanities.

Reviews

[Jonna Higgins-Freese · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, this was the most accessible point of entry to Haraway's thinking that I have come across.

On different ways of imagining difference: "I turn to Octavia Butler - a black science fiction writer - to try to imagine the immune system through something other than the Cold War rhetoric of the immune system as a battlefield. Why not think of it not so much as a discourse of invaders as of shared specificities in a semipermeable self that is able to engage with others as Butler's civilization of gene traders is able to do?" (70)

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Donna J. Haraway's books and essays largely call for scientists, critics, and other producers of knowledge to situate themselves and acknowledge the impact that their personal history and experiences have on their assumptions and definitions of truth. However, a frequent criticism of her work is that she doesn't really situate her self in any detail at all, a charge which, I think, is answered by this book. She goes into great detail about her background as a biologist and about the webs of kinship that exist in her life. It's a good companion to her other books.

[Marianela · Rating 5 out of 5]

amo la biología de nuevo, soy un truhán soy un señor

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

the best introduction to haraway and her ideas. phenomenal voice in feminism, in science.

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was stretching my mind, but some of this was well beyond me. It tied to the book, He, she and it, by Marge Piercy. Good exercise. The idea of cyborg as metaphor is intriguing. Still want to explore her definition. The rating I gave has more to do with my limitations than the author's.

[Cameron Kunzelman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great interview with Donna Haraway where she synthesizes some of the major themes of her work into readable and clear language. I think this would be the perfect introduction to her work for anyone interested in it.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting for the personal details revealed, but far less intellectual bang for your buck than her other works.

[Jo Dagustun · Rating 4 out of 5]

an excellent introduction to Donna's thinking

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rented this book for Haraway's discussion of diffraction, but ending up reading the entire book (it's a short one). Couldn't put this one down.

[Ámbar Trujillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

La lectura es ligera por la estructura de la entrevista. Es un buen libro para adentrarte en el pensamiento de Donna y de su vida. Tiene algunos errores en la edición pero no complica la lectura.

[eli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Donna, maravillosa, faro de luz en la oscuridad de la academia, la señora de todos mis deseos académicos y no académicos. Este libro es, literal y metafóricamente, como a ella le encanta, una invitación a tener una conversación en su cocina, con todo lo que eso implica. Si bien estoy de acuerdo que es una especialmente bonita y cercana introducción a algunos de sus trabajos y conceptualizaciones más complejas, a mi me regalo algo mil veces más preciado, la visita a su casa, a sus animales de compañía, a sus historias de vida y a sus emociones y a ella, en carne. 🏡

Me quedo con algunas de las cosas que más resonaron conmigo, a las que desde ya les hago un lugar en mi casa-caparazón-bolso de narrativas académicas.

“La historia en la que una nace se toma siempre como algo muy naturalizado, hasta que reflexionas sobre ella y entonces, de repente, todo cobra sentido: numerosas capas de inserción en un paisaje de historias sociales y culturales que de repente explotan… las historias frente a las cuales reaccionamos como académicos y profesores no son abstracciones. Son muy profundas.”

“TNG: tenéis un huerto que significaba mucho para Jaye, ¿verdad? Lo recuerdo del funeral. Nos llevamos una fruta a casa cada uno… Recuerdo lo intenso que fue sujetar la fruta en el funeral e imaginar el trabajo y el amor que todos habíais puesto en ella.” “DH:… eran melocotones” 🍑❤️‍🩹

“… para mí las palabras son profundamente físicas. Creo que las palabras y el lenguaje tienen una relación más íntima con el cuerpo que con las ideas.”

Pag. 134- emi lecturas críticas.

“La ciencia ficción es teoría política.”

"Estoy harta de establecer vínculos a través del parentesco y la "familia", y ansío modelos de solidaridad y unidad y diferencia humanas basados en la amistad, el trabajo, los objetivos parcialmente compartidos, el inextricable dolor colectivo, la ineludible mortalidad y la esperanza duradera."

“TNG: Recuerdo que criticabas siempre el psicoanálisis y bromeabas diciendo que antes desarrollarías una teoría del subconsciente basada en las prácticas reproductivas del helecho 🌿 que en la familia nuclear.” “DH: … lo que deseo, básicamente, son modelos de solidaridad y diferencia basados en la amistad… Con la vivacidad y la letalidad -es decir, las esferas más profundas- de la formación y la remodelación del sujeto que tienen lugar a través de la amistad… Mi interés por la amistad viene de las distintas formas en que se infravaloran mis amistades hasta el punto de que solo adquieren relevancia si se trata de relaciones amorosas.”

[Molsa Roja(s) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a coming-and-going visitor of Haraway's work, but since I intend to make a serious approach to her -beginning with her Primate visions- I thought it'd be interesting to hear her outside an strictly academic context. I must say I have learnt more about her life, which is extremely curious, than about her concepts, even though her own way of thinking is carefully described during the interview -that's possible the most interesting point of it all. Well, I can't say I'm delighted but it was certainly entertaining to read.

[Oğul Köker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to read the Turkish translation since the original was too expensive for me. The interview is incredible, but the translation was a bit sloppy.

[Olivia]

“All I am really asking for is permanent passion and irony, where passion is as important as irony.”

She is my GOAT

[Ingrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Usually interviews are a great way to enter into a thinker's realm, and this one is no exception. Good point of entry :)

[Özgü · Rating 5 out of 5]

Donna Haraway'i anlamak için oldukça ideal bir başlangıç.