Alive, Altered, Dead, Other

Biologists have a deep and tradition of killing and preserving organisms (or bits of them) to facilitate study. Organisms regenerate, to varying degrees. Ex-organisms degenerate. "Preserved" ex-organisms degenerate more slowly. A vast literature discusses preservation methods and there is a growing array of analytical and assessments for which new preservation methods become necessary. (Before scanning electron microscopy, gold-plating arthropods was a purely aesthetic exercise.)  Meanwhile, new analysts wielding new methosd (e.g. genomics) seek ways to exploit materials long-preserved for other purposes: herps and fishes in jars, bird skins in drawers, insects on pins, mammals in dioramas. Conservation biologists openly wrestle with the problem of rendering organisms into specimens where extinction looms (see, e.g., Minteer et al 2014 ) but there is a broader field of inquiry available, where even converting effectively limitless numbers of commercially produced organisms to ex-organism specimens has an array of implications for "biology and society". Whether you're inspired to problematize or to more thoroughly elucidate, some aspect of such matters, this session could include historical, philosophical, ethical, aesthetic, social, and perhaps even psychological analyses, from general trends to particular cases. Since I have a lot of contact with botanists, I'll be doing something related to herbarium practice if we get this one off the ground.   

I don't know if you are still interested in receiving contributions. I am interested in the history of preserved plant collections, herbaria, and would like to do something on their changing roles.
Thanks, Maura Flannery