Andrew Balmer

Biography

I research technology, science and everyday life. I am happy to supervise PhD students in the following areas: science and technology studies; lying, deception and secrecy; neurosociety and dementia; sociology of everyday lives. My academic papers are best found here. My current projects include 'Facets of Dementia', concerned with dementia and everday life, and how the personal lives of ageing people are made sense of within scientific and medical contexts. I am also developing my previous work on lie detection technologies into a sociological account of how we tell lies and determine what is to count as a lie in everyday life. Finally, I continue to investigate and participate in the emergence of the field of synthetic biology, through which I am exploring the possibilities for collaboration between the natural and social sciences.

Research Interest

My research explores issues relating to technology, science and everyday life. Topics that I am interested in and have written about include: fMRI, neuroimaging, dementia, everyday life, polygraphy, lie detection, sociology of lying, synthetic biology, biological anthropology, metaphors, surveillance, sex offenders, and scientific evidence.