Steven Epstein

Steven Epstein received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and he taught for many years at the University of California, San Diego. Currently he is Professor of Sociology and John C. Shaffer Professor in the Humanities at Northwestern University. He also directs the Science in Human Culture Program, and he is a co-convener of the Sexualities Project at Northwestern. Professor Epstein studies the “politics of knowledge”—more specifically, the contested production of expert and especially biomedical knowledge, with an emphasis on the interplay of social movements, experts, and health institutions, and with a focus on the politics of sexuality, gender, and race. His current research is on the topic of “sexual health as buzzword.” He is especially well known for two award-winning books, Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge (University of California Press) and Inclusion: The Politics of Difference in Medical Research (University of Chicago Press). More recently, he is a co-editor of Three Shots at Prevention: The HPV Vaccine and the Politics of Medicine’s Simple Solutions (Johns Hopkins UP).