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Abstract
In this dissertation, I rhetorically analyze three examples of how the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its leaders appeal to assumptions, values, and symbols of American exceptionalism to moralize public support of genomics research during three different socio-political contexts: the launch of the Human Genome Project in the late 1980s, promotion of medical genomics in the mid 2000s, and recruitment for today’s ongoing All of Us Research Program. American exceptionalism represents a narrative system that constructs and sustains the notion that the United States is exceptional and chosen by God to lead the world by modeling ideal nationhood and spreading moralism. My analysis seeks to answer three primary questions about the NIH’s mythic and patriotic rhetoric of science. One, what conditions construct the enduring assumptions but evolving arguments, values, and symbols of American exceptionalism? Two, what gestures do NIH rhetors make as they attempt to activate the mythology’s persuasive power in specific socio-political and scientific contexts? Three, what are the entailments as the NIH invites the public to interpret medical science research and public health through the frame of American exceptionalism? In each analysis chapter, I define the scientific and socio-political context that invites the NIH and its leaders to address the public, and I explain specific aspects of American exceptionalism that the rhetors deploy to inspire urgency and overcome resistance to the advancement of genomics research. I then analyze unique deployment of a rhetoric I call American scientific exceptionalism. I explain how each rhetor appeals to different aspects of American exceptionalism as they attempt to generate commonality and credibility and to rationalize certain action affiliated with genomics as necessary. My analysis also examines the risks of idealizing a certain modality of medicine and encouraging the public to interpret medical science and its support in terms of US politics and mythology.