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Drawing on a disparate set of naturalcultural phenomena from regenerative biology, quantum field theory, and queer and trans theories that include lightning, primordial ooze, frogs, bioelectricity, monstrosity, trans rage, virtual particles, and errant pathways, this article is about the materiality of political imageries and the possibilities for making queer alliance with nature's nonessentialist nature. In particular, it makes an argument for the radically deconstructive, queer, and trans nature of nature, including nature's own engagement with materialist practices of imagining.

This essay explores the act of touching as it takes place in physical matter, in theorizing, and in the productive spaces where the two are indistinguishable. First, the author considers how feminist theory goes about touching science and unpacks touch as an act that reveals the self within the other and the other within the self. The essay then offers a tutorial in quantum field theory to prepare the reader for an unexpected interlocutor on the topic of touching: the electron. As Barad demonstrates with descriptions of electrons and how they have troubled physicists to the point of being "normalized" and called "immoral," these particles resist normative notions of physical contact; they are perverse. On the human scale, electrons trouble the notion of touch by making it impossible to close the distance between atoms: the sense of touch paradoxically relies on electric repulsion between neighboring objects. On the subatomic scale, each electron gleans its energy from touching itself as if undergoing an exchange with another. Not only does the presence of contact come from its absence but also the presence of electrons themselves relies on a void holding their virtual counterparts. On every level, one can never reach the other—even the other within oneself. This paradox on the micro scale that constitutes all macro-scale matter calls into question the spatial and temporal fixity of identity. Barad shows that the notion of a unified, autonomous self is problematic not just on the personal level but on the particle level as well, and she responds to this deconstruction of matter with an ethics of response-ability.

In this article, Karen Barad entertains the possibility of the queerness of one of the most pervasive of all critters – atoms. These "ultraqueer" critters with their quantum quotidian qualities queer queerness itself in their radically deconstructive ways of being. Given that queer is a radical questioning of identity and binaries, including the nature/culture binary, this article aims to show that all sorts of seeming impossibilities are indeed possible, including the queerness of causality, matter, space, and time. What if queerness were understood to reside not in the breech of nature/culture, per se, but in the very nature of spacetimemattering, Barad asks. This article also considers questions of ethics and justice, and in particular, examines the ways in which moralism insists on having its way with the nature/culture divide. Barad argues that moralism, feeds off of human exceptionalism, and, in particular, human superiority and causes injury to humans and nonhumans alike, is a genetic carrier of genocidal hatred, and undermines ecologies of diversity necessary for flourishing.

Discusses the nature of (inter)disciplinarity & the development of a pedagogical approach to teaching scientific literacy that is based on its reconceptualization as "agential literacy." The nature of disciplinary knowledge & the need for joint conceptual shifts in basic understandings of scientific literacy are discussed. Agential realism is defined as an "epistem-onto-logical framework" that expands on the work of physicist Niels Bohr (1963) to focus on such things as the nature of scientific & other social practices; the essence of reality/matter; the role of natural, social, & cultural factors in scientific knowledge production; & links between the material & discursive. An exploration of the implications of agential realism for thinking about scientific literacy stresses that the making of science is not separate from the making of society, & teaching scientific literacy can no longer be seen as the sole responsibility of scientists. A course titled "Situated Knowledges: Cultural Studies of Twentieth Century Physics" was specifically designed to advance the agential literacy of science & nonscience majors. The course's approach & content are described. 24 References. J. Lindroth

Comment considérer l'unité de l'espace, du temps, et de la matière ? Comme « espacetempsmatérialisant ». Ce terme étrange a été fondu par l'éclair d'Hiroshima. Comme l'anthropologue Joe Masco nous y exhorte, « nous avons besoin d'examiner les effets de la bombe, non seulement au niveau de l'État-nation, mais aussi au niveau de l'écosystème local, de l'organisme, et, finalement, de la cellule ». Dès lors, quels outils d'analyse peut-on utiliser pour comprendre non seulement les enchevêtrements de phénomènes qui traversent les échelles, mais aussi la très itérative (re)constitution et sédimentation des configurations spécifiques de l'espace, du temps, et de la matière ? Comment finir pas comprendre qu'il n'y a pas de séparation entre le niveau micro et le niveau macro, qu'il n'y a pas de petite matière, que l'infinitésimal est grand, que le néant nous presse ?

La catégorie du « naturel » a mauvaise réputation quand il est question de genre et de sexualité : elle est bien souvent utilisée pour essentialiser et valoriser les « bons » comportements et rejeter les « mauvais genres » du côté des monstres et du contre-nature. Mais si la « Nature » elle-même était déviante ? Et si la matière elle-même était faite d'êtres qui défient la logique ? Dans cet article, la physicienne et philosophe des sciences Karen Barad propose une lecture oblique de la physique quantique et de ses réceptions, à la recherche de créatures (des éclairs, des électrons, du vide, un monstre de Frankenstein…) aux côtés desquelles toustes celleux qu'on a désignées comme contre-nature pourraient trouver compagnie.