Through Lines and Fault Lines
How has science changed the courtroom? How have religion and science interacted to create inflection points throughout history? How does one’s culture show up in the doctor’s office?
From Supreme Court rulings to medical biases, from scientific revolutions to shifting social norms—I trace the hidden threads that connect them all.
Allyson Quick (or “Al Quick”) is a writer and Science & Society scholar. She’s fascinated by positioning historical events—particularly legislation, “culture war” issues, and SCOTUS decisions—in their broader context. For example, what religious beliefs, cultural norms, and scientific theories were prevalent at the time?
Her interests, insofar as more modern applications of a “Science and Society lens to journalistic writing,” include:
women’s athleticism and excellence - how self-help and motivational books are often written for and by men and are missing the perspective and struggle many mothers deal with
pop culture and politics - books and movies often reflect our moment and can inspire and inform our worldview
feminism (its various iterations) and the science, politics, and pop culture that interact with it over time - from Taylor Swift to Mary Tyler Moore to Barbie; from eugenics to birth control to suffrage.
She named her blog “Through Lines and Fault Lines” because of her affinity for tracing connections, such as between science from 50 years ago, legislation from 20 years ago, and the culture and politics today. The “Fault Lines” part cleverly nods to the fracturing and polarization in American politics.
Having lived and worked all across the U.S., Allyson has had meaningful and respectful conversations with all variety of people. She knows better than to assume every issue has only two sides and that every person aligns all their views with one ideological ‘side of the aisle’. With a passion for linguistics and an ear for a sort of “code switching” between the rural, conservative Christians she grew up around and the coastal, elite academics she was in community with at college; she believes we’re often just talking past each other and missing how much we actually could agree on. We’re often expressing frustration at the same problem. We’re just using different words, and often blaming different causes.
Whether by synthesizing complex scientific information, connecting the dots of seemingly disparate topics, translating ideas between the communities of science, politics, and society, or simply being the interpreter between ‘the sides’; Allyson strives to provide a voice that bridges gaps and speaks to deeper truths than clickbait or buzz words.
More about me and Science & Society
I grew up in a rural midwestern smalltown and then got my degree in Science and Society from Brown University. I’ve studied in Spain, lived in Oregon, and have been a resident of southeast Texas for over 5 years.
I’ve worked in a variety of industries: healthcare, public interest, food service, insurance, veteran law, disability care. I’ve gained a breadth of experiences, and seek to bring my unique worldly and academic perspectives to my writing in a way that bridges the gap between ideological divides.
Science & Society is an interdisciplinary field that helps me analyze the interactions between culture, policy, history, and medicine. How something earlier this year relates to something 100 years ago. And how something in a Texas small town relates to something in an East Coast suburb.
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