About

Torin Monahan, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Torin Monahan is an interdisciplinary scholar who holds a Ph.D. in the field of Science and Technology Studies. He is an internationally recognized researcher who studies the social and cultural dimensions of surveillance systems, with a specific focus on gender and racial inequalities. He also participates on interdisciplinary research teams to investigate transformations in urban systems, national security, healthcare, and higher education, among other domains. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Surveillance & Society and has published seven books, including Crisis Vision: Race and the Cultural Production of Surveillance (2022, Duke University Press).

Jill A. Fisher, Ph.D.

Professor, Center for Bioethics and Department of Social Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Jill Fisher holds a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies, and her research primarily focuses on how clinical trials are conducted and who participates in them as researchers and participants. She has published more than 50 articles and book chapters, and she is the author of Medical Research for Hire: The Political Economy of Pharmaceutical Clinical Trials (Rutgers University Press, 2009) and Adverse Events: Race, Inequality, and the Testing of New Pharmaceuticals (New York University Press, 2020).

Margaret Waltz, Ph.D.

Research Associate, Department of Social Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Margaret Waltz received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Case Western Reserve University where she researched patients’ experiences of waiting in medical waiting rooms and how medical institutions structure patients’ time. She also works on the ethical and social issues that emerge as a result of developments in genomic technologies.

Maral Erol, Ph.D.

Research Specialist, Department of Social Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Maral Erol is an interdisciplinary social scientist with a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies (STS) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and fifteen years of academic work experience in several universities in the US and Turkey. She has published on a range of topics, including medicalization of menopause and andropause, perceptions of osteoporosis and risk, functional foods, and the institutionalization of STS in Turkey.

Amelia Parker, B.A.

Doctoral Student, Department of Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Amelia Parker received her B.A. from California State University, Monterey Bay in social justice education curriculum development and presently focuses on identifying power misuse and disparities in higher education. In her research, Amelia maps how professionalism is an expectation created and enforced by white supremacy.