"My interest in technology spans debates about enhancing evolution through human enhancement and the rise of alternative digital worlds"

I was part of the early scholarly transhumanist community, which grew up at the end of the millennium and includes some notable figures like Nick Bostrom, Anders Sandberg, and Natasha Vita-More.

I’ve also been involved with some of the pioneering projects examining the ethics of human enhancement, particularly working with The Hasting Center New York, Oxford University, and a variety of European institutions.

My early work focused on the transformation of athletic potential through technology as frontrunners in the human enhancement milieu. This research grew quickly into a broader focus on the ethics and cultural study of human enhancement, along with biolegal research. At the turn of the century, the human genome project and the growing shift in language within research and medicine to think of ageing as a disease rather than just something that people encounter as they grow old, focused my work on the range of ways that humanity could be made more resilient and more biologically adaptable by way of human enhancements.

Over the years, I have written about various kinds of enhancement, from memory deletion to genetic modification and I've published in journals of law, philosophy, cultural studies, sociology and science. After completing my PhD in 2002, I undertook a Master degree in Medical Law, which really brought home how crucial it is for these discussions to borrow from different disciplinary insights. Since then, I have been involved with a range of international projects, focused on human enhancement. Alongside this work, I have developed theoretical perspectives on posthumanism, cyborg culture, and challenges to conventional bioethics.

SOME OF MY FAVOURITE Publications

Miah, A. (2008) Human Futures: Art in an Age of Uncertainty. Liverpool University Press & FACT.

Miah, A. (2004) Genetically Modified Athletes. Routledge.

Miah, A. (2020) Life Extension and Immortality, The Bloomsbury Handbook of Posthumanism.

Miah, A. (2019) Enhancing Evolution: The Transhuman Case for Gene Doping. In: Lightfoot, J.T, Hubal, M.J. and Stephen M. Roth (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Sport and Exercise Systems Genetics. Oxon: Routledge, pp.463-474.

Rich, E. & Miah. A. (2016) Mobile, wearable and ingestible health technologies: towards a critical research agenda, Health Sociology Review, 26(1), 84-97.

Miah, A. (2015) Human Enhancement in Sport. Global Handbook on Bioethics, Springer Reference.

Miah, A. (2013) Justifying Human Enhancement: The Accumulation of Biocultural Capital, in More, M. & Vita More, N. (Eds) The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future, Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.

Miah, A. (2012) Genetics & Sport: Bioethical Concerns, Recent Patents on DNA and Gene Sequences, 6(3), 197-202.

Miah, A. (2011) Ethical Issues Raised by Human Enhancements, in: Gonzalez, F. Ethics and Values for the 21st Century, BBVA Spain, 199-233 [Also in Spanish].

Miah, A. (2011) Bioethical Concerns in a Culture of Human Enhancement. In Bouchard, C. & Hoffman, E. Encyclopedia of Sports Medicine, Genetic and Molecular Aspects of Sport Performance. Lausanne, International Olympic Committee, 383-392.

Miah, A. & Rich, E. (2010) The Bioethics of Cybermedicalization, in Nayar, P. The New Media and Cybercultures Anthology, Wiley-Blackwell, 209-220.

Wackerage, H., Miah, A., Harris, R.C., Montgomery, H.E. and Williams, A.G. (2009) Genetic Research and Testing in Sport and Exercise Science: A review of the issues’, Journal of Sport Sciences, 27(11), 1109-1116

Miah, A. (2009) Human Enhancement in Performative Cultures, Annales de Philosophie, pp.171-192.

Miah, A. (2009) Human Enhancement: A Reply to Mehlman, Issues in Science and Technology, 5(4), 6-8.

Miah, A. (2008) Letter to Utopia: A Reply to Bostrom, Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology, 2(1), 1-6.

Miah, A. (2008) Engineering Greater Resilience or Radical Transhuman Enhancement, Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology, 2(1), 1-18.

Miah, A. (2007) Genetic Selection for Enhanced Health Characteristics, Journal of International Biotechnology Law, 4(6), 239-264.

Miah, A. (2007) Genetics, Bioethics & Sport, Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 1(2), 146-158.

Miah, A. (2003) Be Very Afraid: Cyborg Athletes, Transhuman Ideals & Posthumanity, Journal of Evolution & Technology, 13(2), [Available from: http://www.jetpress.org/volume13/miah.html].

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