Research
Research
I work on the ethics, epistemology, and politics of the health and life sciences.
Right now, I am especially interested in big data biology, biotechnology, and biosocial science.
I'm also working on collaborative projects about "biological sex" in medicine and beyond.
Upcoming talks & appearances
July 18: "Blood, Sweat, and Teams: Menstrual Surveillance and Workplace Wellness in Sport" at the PPE Society in London. This is a GenderSci lab project co-led by Katharine Lee in collaboration with Madeleine Pape, Abigail Higgins, Marion Boulicault, and Sarah Richardson.
July 25: Panel discussion on Biology and Sexes at the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology in Porto
August 6: "Vague Sexes" at the University of Exeter
Sept. 18: Panel discussion of prenatal testing for the Landau Symposium at WashU Medical School
Oct 31: TBD at the Minorities and Philosophy speaker series at Mizzou
Nov 7: Panel discussion of sex, gender, and sport at the Civil Society Brunch at WashU
Papers
Marsella, J., M. DiMarco, A. Higgins, S. Richardson and J. Bruch. "Investment Feminism and Women's Health." Accepted at Signs: Journal of Women and Culture in Society. [investment feminism preprint]
Watkins, A. and M. DiMarco. (2025). "Sex Eliminativism." Biology and Philosophy 40(2). [sex eliminativism paper]
DiMarco, M. "Models as Dogwhistles." (2024). Philosophy of Science 91(1): 72-89. [dogwhistles paper] (open access)
Zhao, H., M. DiMarco, K. Ichikawa, M. Boulicault, M. Perret, K. Jillson, A. Fair, K. DeJesus, and S. S. Richardson. (2023). "Making a ‘sex-difference fact’: Ambien dosing at the interface of policy, regulation, women’s health, and biology,'' Social Studies of Science 53 (4): 475-494. [ambien paper] (open access) [ambien thread]
DiMarco, M. "Cooperative Epistemic Trustworthiness." (2023). Philosophy of Science 90 (5): 1100 - 1109. [trust paper] (open access)
DiMarco, M. and K. Khalifa. (2022). "Sins of Inquiry: How to Criticize Scientific Pursuits." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 92, 86-96. [sins paper] [sins talk ] [sins thread]
DiMarco, M. (2021). "Wishful Intelligibility, Black Boxes and Epidemiological Explanation,'' Philosophy of Science 88 (5): 824-834. [wishful conference paper] [wishful full paper] [wishful talk] [wishful thread]
DiMarco, M. (2020). "(re)Producing mtEve." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 83 (2020): 101290. [mtEve paper]
This paper won the 2021 Werner Callebaut Prize.
DiMarco, M. and K. Khalifa. (2019). "Inquiry Tickets: Values, Pursuit, and Underdetermination,'' Philosophy of Science 86 (5): 1016-1028. [inquiry tickets paper]
Invited, comments, reviews, etc.
DiMarco, M. and M. Miyagi. (2025). "Review of Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther’s Our Genes." Philosophy of Science 92, 768–782
doi:10.1017/psa.2024.35. [our genes book review]
DiMarco, M., H. Zhao, M. Boulicault, and S. S. Richardson. (2022). "Why 'Sex as a Biological Variable' Conflicts with Precision Medicine Initiatives." Cell Reports Medicine 3 (4): 100550. [SABV paper] (open access) [SABV explainer blog] [SABV thread]
DiMarco, M. (2020). "The Allan C. Wilson Papers at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley," Mendel Newsletter 22, 6-11. [mendel newsletter]
Osman Attah, N., DiMarco, M., and A. Plutynski. (2020). "Microbiomes: Proportional Causes in Context," Biology & Philosophy 35 (22). [microbiomes paper]
Pop, public & media
GenderSci Lab's letter of comment on the AMA's "Draft Guidance on Reporting Gender, Sex, Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, and Age in Medical and Scientific Publication."
K. Ichikawa, K. DeJesus, and M. DiMarco. (2023). "The risks of sex-based drug dosing recommendations." Vox [ambien vox]
DiMarco, M. (2022). "Black Boxes and Wishful Intelligibility." Scatterplot [black box blog]
DiMarco, M., A. Fair and B. Maldonado. (2022). "How to Be an Anti-Eugenicist." Gender Sci Blog [anti-eugenics blog]