Book Projects

My book projects consider how patients’, caregivers’, and health activists’ lived experiences of illness can bring about changes in both the cultural beliefs and health policies that shape patienthood in the United States.

Fighting for Health Equity: Past, Present, Futures (2021)

This public-facing reader discusses persistent inequities in the U.S. health care system, focusing on racial disparities in access to health insurance, maternal mortality, and pre-existing medical conditions. This reader was written with patients, caregivers, and health activists in mind, and is meant to encourage discussion that might drive widespread participation in health policy advocacy. This work was published by the MIT CoLab as part of the Taking Freedom book series.

Performing Health: Stand-up Comedy and the Neoliberal Biopolitics of Hope

Drawing on my dissertation research, this book manuscript looks to the world of stand-up comedy and comedians’ intimate discussions of illness, disease, dying, and death to examine the biopolitics of hope in biomedicine. This work considers how hope is used to condition patients’ responses to chronic illness and disease risk, as well as how patients find ways of resisting this conditioning.