About
Miranda Waggoner is Associate Professor of Sociology at Rice University, where she is also affiliated with the Science and Technology Studies Program, the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, the Medical Humanities Program, the Department of English, and the Baker Institute for Public Policy. She is also a Medical Ethics Scholar at the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine. Waggoner’s research examines how social structure and culture shape biomedical knowledge production, medical care, and public health practice. In her work, she aims to broaden and inform conversations in bioethics and health policy, especially in the areas of reproduction and women’s health. She is the author of The Zero Trimester: Pre-Pregnancy Care and the Politics of Reproductive Risk (University of California Press, 2017), which was awarded the 2019 Robert K. Merton Book Award from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Science, Knowledge, and Technology. Waggoner’s current project focuses on “vulnerable” populations and biomedical research ethics, specifically with regard to the inclusion of pregnant individuals in clinical trials.
Waggoner received her PhD in Sociology and Social Policy from Brandeis University’s Department of Sociology and Heller School for Social Policy and Management. From 2011–2014, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. Waggoner is an alumna of the Greenwall Foundation’s Faculty Scholars Program in Bioethics, and she is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award.
She has also received numerous teaching awards, including a 2018–2019 University Teaching Award from Florida State University.
CONTACT
Post: Rice University, Department of Sociology, MS 28, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005
E-mail: waggoner@rice.edu