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Acknowledgments The science of immunology has spawned many dramatic developments over the years, yet its by-products, from transplantation to vaccination, are frequently shadowed by debate and controversy. In 2008, Julie Livingston, Steven Epstein, Robert Aronowitz, and I brought together a group of scholars (from sociology, history, medicine, medical ethics, pathology, psychology, communication arts, and health policy) for two meetings to reflect on one of the latest unfolding controversies: the then-new HPV vaccine, Gardasil. Because the vaccine had become a focal point for contentious debate—about pharmaceutical advertising; scientific evidence; cancer prevention and risk; the role of government in public health; girls, families, and sexuality; and global health inequalities—we envisioned this volume as a case study of the fraught intersection where the science of immunology, medical practice, and public health collide with society, culture, and politics. The resulting volume can be read both as a chronicle of the evolution of the debate and as an analysis of the perspectives, values, and policy questions unearthed by the vaccine in particular and by immunology more generally. This multidisciplinary analysis could not have been possible without the generous support I received from the James S. McDonnell Foundation’s Centennial x Acknowledgments Fellowship in the History of Science—a grant to encourage exploration of a range of developments in the biomedical sciences in fields from cancer to genetics and from pain to immunology. This book follows on the heels of an earlier McDonnell-supported, coedited volume, A Death Retold: Jesica Santillan, the Bungled Transplant, and the Paradoxes of Medical Citizenship, which focused on another recent “immunological event” (an organ transplantation error) and used similar methods to examine the administrative, technical, social, political, and ethical complexities of organ donation, organ matching, medical error, and immigrant health today. Both volumes reflect one important goal of the McDonnell Fellowship: to promote innovative, cross-disciplinary scholarship and thereby advance the understanding of the biomedical sciences and their sweeping implications in the modern world. Additional support for this project came from the Rutgers University Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research and from the university’s Center for Race and Ethnicity. The volume is also the result of the insight, wisdom, and effort of many extraordinary people. I am particularly grateful that Julie Livingston, Steven Epstein , Robert Aronowitz, and I made such a marvelous team. Several research assistants provided important assistance by organizing our conferences and meetings and providing editorial insight at various stages. They are Isra Ali, Dana Brown, Nadia Brown, Fatimah Williams-Castro, Jeffrey Dowd, Bridget Gurtler, Shakti Jaising, Melissa Stein, Anantha Sudhakar, and Dora Vargha. In this group, Shakti Jaising deserves our special gratitude for her insightful editorial contributions. Mia Kissil provided excellent administrative and conferenceplanning support, as did Maureen DeKaser. Others who offered helpful comments on conference presentations, chapters, sections, or the entire volume are Mia Bay, Carol Bigman, Carlos Ulises Decena, Christine Gorka, Amy Leader, Stephen Pemberton, and Charles Rosenberg. We are particularly grateful to Elizabeth Armstrong for her strong, challenging suggestions for improving the volume, to Jacqueline Wehmueller at the Johns Hopkins University Press for her wide-ranging editorial insight, and to copyeditor Lois Crum for deft work with words, themes, and concepts. Finally, Julie, Steven, Robby, and I owe profound thanks to the essay contributors for their diligence, thoughtfulness, and brilliance in analyzing the many features of the HPV story—from the global to the local, and from science to politics and culture—and for collectively illuminating what makes the vaccines at once promising and controversial. Keith Wailoo ...

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