Data Rituals in Intimate Infrastructures: Crip Time and the Disabled Cyborg Body as an Epistemic Site of Feminist Science

While much feminist STS has focused on science and laboratories as sites of critical engagement, feminism and feminist theory has introduced alternative sites of knowledge production and engagement. This essay draws on new materialism and feminist theories of nature, embodiment and technology in order to analyze the disabled cyborg body as an epistemic site of feminist science. In particular, I analyze my own experience of adopting and using networked technologies—specifically, an insulin pump and glucose monitor--to manage Type 1 diabetes and the kinds of scientific practices that I engage in on a daily basis. These technologies and practices deserve attention in terms of what they can teach us about common discourses around science, innovation and infrastructure and, ultimately, about ourselves.