Meeting the Universe Halfway: Barad 2007

Karen Barad's book Meeting the Universe Halfway (2007) prompted Chanda Prescod-Weinstein to question her attachment to the Standard Model and scientific reductionism. Barad's statement -- “particle physics… is the ultimate manifestation of the tendency toward scientific reductionism.” -- leads Chanda to question her history of learning: 

“how I might perceive all of this if I were not a product of an educational system rooted in Euro-American precepts. Would I still be fascinated by the layered hierarchy of particle physics, and all of its attending nomenclature? Or did my education give me the capacity to find particle physics deeply exciting, despite its juxtaposition with the nuclear weapons development that helped turn modern particle physics into a line of work? After all, I’ve known since I was a kid that particle physics was tied to the legacy of nuclear weapons.”