Acknowledgments
We’ve worked on this book for more than four years, while between us we’ve lived in five cities and three countries on two continents. We’re grateful to our awesome contributors for their steadfast commitment to the project and for the passion that shows through in their writing. Thanks to series editors Kathryn Scantlebury and Catherine Milne for inviting the book (and persistently nudging it along!), and to Peter de Liefde, Michel Lokhorst, Evelien van der Veer, and Jolanda Karada at Brill Sense. Our appreciation to Lisa DeBoer for producing the book’s index.
Special thanks to Anatomical Theatres of Mixed Reality (ATOM-r) for the book’s cover image, taken at the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago by Grace DuVal (see imss.org/kjell). ATOM-r is a provisional collective exploring forensics, anatomy, and 21st-century embodiment through performance, language, and emerging technologies. We’re indebted to Grace and performers Chris Knowlton, Justin Deschamps, Leonardo Kaplan, and Judd Morrissey for permission to use the photograph. The image is from Kjell Theøry (2017), an augmented reality performance juxtaposing Alan Turing’s theory of morphogenesis with algorithmic mutations of Guillaume Apollinaire’s 1917 play Les Mamelles de Tirésias (The Breasts of Tiresias), a genderfluid spectacle for which the author invented the word surrealism (see atom-r.com). We salute Jorge Lucero for connecting us to ATOM-r!
Will: I acknowledge with gratitude Charles Sturt University and specifically Lesley White, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Education, for her support and for allowing me the time and space to pursue this never-ending passion. To Sandra Harding and Nancy W. Brickhouse, who were there at the beginning of this work, I acknowledge and thank you for the inspiration, motivation, mentoring, and friendship. Huge thanks to Brett Hartmann and our boys for sharing me with this project and enduring the absences—and especially for unstinting love and support. And most of all, deep, heartfelt thanks to Steve Fifield for being an amazing intellectual travelling companion over decades of adventures, occasional mischief, and lots of laughs. Steve, I’m in awe of your ideas, inspired by your writing, and so very grateful for our friendship—intellectual and otherwise.
Steve: My work on this book was aided immeasurably by adjunct faculty appointments in the University of Delaware School of Education that allowed access to the university’s research library. Thanks to Zoubeida Dagher, Danielle Ford, Chrystalla Mouza, Carol Vukelich, and other colleagues in the School of Education for supporting those appointments. At important points in my work life as a grant writer, Marisa Wigglesworth, then at The Franklin Institute Science Museum, and Patricia Brooke, at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, helped me craft day jobs that accommodated this project in off-hours. I couldn’t have asked for more supportive bosses. I may have never turned to queering science education without Lee Swain’s curiosity about his experiences and his generosity in sharing what he learned. Will Letts, my memory, though perhaps not yours, is that 20 years ago you catalyzed our subsequent work together during a conversation at Iron Hill Brewery. You’re the best intellectual instigator I know, and a loving friend. And deep gratitude to Kit for sharing our life with contributors to this volume, virtual guests in our home who couldn’t leave until Will and I finished our work.