Benjamin Hegarty

Symbiotic viruses: More-than-human anthropology, queer theory, and virology

Virological research is now attending to the possibility that not all viruses cause disease. Some viruses may even be good for us. This project aims to investigate the symbiotic possibility of viruses through an empirical, multisited account of the human pegivirus, thought to be beneficial to human hosts. One strand of research about viral symbiosis investigates the human pegivirus, formerly known as ‘GB-V’ or the ‘Good Boy Virus.’ Since then, the pegivirus has been found to have benefits for its hosts, leading to calls that it might serve as a potential ‘biovaccine’ at a moment of increasing antimicrobial resistance.

How do we live ethically with viruses in an age of climate change, ecological collapse, and capitalism? Bringing together scientists from the Pasteur Institute and the Laboratory for Social Anthropology, the project will consist of a workshop, a book manuscript, and performance on the theme of viral symbiosis in collaboration with an artist. In doing so, the fellowship will develop a theoretical framework at the intersection of more-than-human anthropology, queer theory, and virology.

A particular concern will be to develop new, empirically based forms of queer theory, inspired by the activism and citizen science that emerged among AIDS activists in ACT UP in the 1980s in France. A multispecies ethnography of viruses draws its urgency from both a theoretical impasse and political challenge. Viruses are often described as though they have malicious intentions. The result is an ongoing slippage between viral and human threats under a rubric of security, leading to expressions of xenophobia, racism, and homophobia. Learning from the human pegivirus offers an opportunity to better understand the promise of ethical life with viruses.