Laura Mamo, PhD

Biography

Laura Mamo (Ph.D. University of California, San Francisco, 2002) is Associate Professor of Health Education and core-faculty member in the Health Equity Institute at San Francisco State University. Dr. Mamo's research examines the social and cultural dimensions of biomedicine, as knowledge, practice, and culture in the U.S. Her primary research area focuses on the co-production of knowledge and social inequalities, emphasizing the ways gender and sexuality are produced in and through biomedicine and health care and, in turn, how people give meaning to and negotiate health care in their everyday lives. Her current research projects in this area include studying the relationships between sexuality and biomedicine by examining the multiple social worlds that promote notions of "sexual health." Following her recent work on HPV vaccines, Mamo is engaged in a study of the biopolitics of STI-cancer connections, the emergent role of vaccine technology in cancer prevention, and the impact of gender and sexual politics on understandings of cancer.  Following her work on assistive reproductive technologies, Mamo is engaged in a project studying the U.S. market in women's gametes for assisted reproduction and stem cell research.

A second major activist-academic research area takes on the intersections of environmental health knowledge, "green" technologies, and sustainable living practices examining the ways people understand and act in relation to these innovations. This research focuses on low-income built-environments and neighborhoods that emphasize active living, healthy eating, and sustainable technology with a focus on understanding the positive health influence of such programs and practices on residents.

Mamo is the author of Queering Reproduction: Achieving Pregnancy in the Age of Technoscience (Duke University Press, 2007); co-editor of Biomedicalization Studies: Technoscience and Transformations of Health, Illness and U.S. Biomedicine (Duke University Press, 2010); and co-author of Living Green: Communities That Sustain (New Society Press, 2009). She is currently editing a pecial issue of Science, Technology and Human Values on the intersections of science, ethics and justice.  Mamo's research has appeared in such journals as Signs: Women in Culture and Society, Science as Culture, Science, Technology & Human Values, Sociological Perspectives, Sociology of Health and Illness, and the American Sociological Review. Mamo joined the faculty at SF State in 2010 following appointments as Assistant Professor and Associated Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park where she also served as an affiliate faculty member of the Women's Studies Department and LGBT studies program.

Books, Chapters and Articles

Books

Mamo, L. 2007. Queering Reproduction: Achieving Pregnancy in the Age of Technoscience. Duke University Press.

Fosket, JR and L. Mamo. 2009. Living Green: Communities that Sustain. New Society Press.

Clarke, A.E., L. Mamo, J. Shim, J. Fishman & J.R. Fosket (eds.). 2010. Biomedicalization: Technoscience, Health, and Illness in the U.S. Duke University Press.

Articles and Book Chapters

Mamo, L., A. Nelson & A. Clark. 2010. "Producing and Protecting Risky Girlhoods: How the HPV Vaccine Became the Right Tool to Prevent Cervical Cancer." In K. Wailoo, J. Livingston, S. Epstein and R. Aronowitz (eds.). Three Shots at Prevention: The HPV Vaccine and the Politics of Medicine's Simple Solutions. The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Mamo L. and R. Bhatia. 2010. "Reproductive Rights," in The Encyclopedia of Political Science. Sage Publications.

Mamo, L. "Fertility Inc.: Consumption and Subjectification in Lesbian Reproductive Practices," in Clarke et al. (eds.) Biomedicalization: Technoscience, Health, and Illness in the U.S. Duke University Press.

Mamo, L. & J.R. Fosket. 2009. "Scripting the Body: Pharmaceuticals and the (Re)Making of Menstruation" Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society [special issue on reproductive technologies], 34(3): 925-950.

Mamo, L. 2007. "Negotiating Conception: Lesbians' Hybrid-Technological Practices." Science, Technology and Human Values, 32: 369-393.

Joyce, K. & L. Mamo. 2006. "Graying the Cyborg: New Directions in Feminist Analyses of Aging, Science, and Technology," in T. Calasanti and K. Slevin (eds.). Age Matters: Realigning Feminist Thinking. Routledge Press.

Mamo, L. 2005. "Biomedicalizing Kinship: Sperm Banks and the Creation of Affinity-ties," Science as Culture, 14(3): 237-264.

Clarke, A.E., J. Shim, L. Mamo, JR. Fosket, & JR. Fishman. 2003. "Biomedicalization: Theorizing Technoscientific Transformations of Health, Illness, and U.S. Biomedicine." American Sociological Review, 68 (2): 161-194.

Mamo, L. & M.R. Mueller. 2003. "Confronting Inequalities of HIV/AIDS Care in the US: Suggested lines of investigation." Critical Public Health, 3(14): 347-356.

Fishman, J. & L. Mamo. 2002. "What's in a Disorder: A Cultural Analysis of Medical and Pharmaceutical Constructions of Male and Female Sexual Dysfunction." Women & Therapy, 24 (1&2): 179-193.

Mamo, L. & J. Fishman. 2001. "Potency in All the Right Places: Viagra as a Gendered Technology of the Body." Body & Society, 7 (4): 13-35. (Recipient: 1999 Graduate Student Paper Award, American Sociological Association, Section on Science, Knowledge and Technology)

The Working Group on A New View of Women's Sexual Problems. 2000. "A New View of Women's Sexual Problems." Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality, Vol. 3. URL http://www.ejhs.org/volume3/newview.htm (reprinted over 25 times).

Mamo, L. 1999 "Death and Dying: Confluences of Emotion and Awareness." Sociology of Health and Illness, 21(1): 13-39. (Recipient: 1997 Graduate Student Paper Award, American Sociological Association, Section on Emotions)