Black holes are scientifically fascinating because their extreme conditions link the worlds of general relativity and quantum mechanics. It is therefore only appropriate that the world's foremost expert on black holes, Dr. Stephen Hawking, is in his own way a social singularity that links the disparate domains of pure science and disabilities studies.

In Hawking Inc, Mialet uses actor-network theory and other tools from the social studies of science to deconstruct the figure of 'Hawking.' Is Hawking the naked mind, working in a rarefied realm of pure geometric visualization; the helpless body at the center of a complex network of sociotechnical supports; the ideological leader of a productive research group; a genius on par with Galileo and Newton or merely a genius for self-promotion. She finds that the closer you get to Hawking, the more he recedes, but there is still worthwhile work to be done in looking at how scientific work is done collectively, and what it means for a person with profound disabilities to live their own life.