Research

DISSERTATION | My dissertation examined how communities democratize technology to pursue health justice goals. I used qualitative methods (interviews and ethnographic observations) to examine a group of patients, citizen scientists, and health activists working to produce the drug insulin in a community lab in the United States. I found that mistrust of medical institutions motivated actors to “opt out” of conventional public health and political channels to address drug access needs, and instead pursue grassroots technological solutions. In my award-winning article in Social Science & Medicine (2025), I theorize that the recent proliferation in patient groups who use technology to resist or operate outside healthcare systems (e.g., do-it-yourself patients) is a response to the individualization, fragmentation, and corporatization of healthcare, suggesting this represents a new phase of health advocacy and care. Additional publications from this research appear in the leading science and technology studies (STS) journal Social Studies of Science (forthcoming 2025) and in Citizen Science: Theory and Practice (2022). I also employed a community-based research methodology, leading me to publish a policy brief through the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley that was subsequently used by community health activists in my study.

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CURRENT RESEARCH | Please check back for updates on my current work.

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