ABOUT

I am a historical sociologist who has written extensively about twentieth-century American medical institutions and biomedical science.  For some time, my focus has been the framing of moral issues in the conduct of human research. 

I earned my doctorate in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, with a concentration in historical analysis, and have served as Full Professor at both Vanderbilt University and the University of Illinois at Chicago.  I have also had been a visiting scholar at the Center for Bioethics, University Pennsylvania School of Medicine; the Institute for Government and Public Affairs, University of Illinois; and the American Bar Foundation, a center for socio-legal scholarship.  My funding awards include an Investigator Award in Health Policy Research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and a major grant and several University Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  For Dangerous Medicine, I received a multi-year award from the National Library of Medicine within the National Institutes of Health.  I am currently Professor Emerita at University of Illinois at Chicago, and Lecturer at the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University.