Melanie Jeske, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute on the Formation of Knowledge, University of Chicago

Melanie Jeske is a sociologist of medicine, science, and technology. Using qualitative methods, her work demonstrates how biomedical technologies and science produced in laboratories are connected to the unequal, everyday experiences of people who navigate healthcare structures. Jeske’s research contributes to three areas of scholarship: political economy of new biomedical technologies; scientific cultures of inequality; and the unequal experiences of illness. In each of her research areas, Jeske foregrounds issues of social inequality and analyze how power relations manifest in and through scientific practices and institutions. She has published on these issues in journals such as BioSocieties, Social Science & Medicine, Engaging Science, Technology & Society, as well as in edited collections. Most recently, she founded the DE-SILO Project (Diversity, Equity, and Sociology Training in Laboratory Organizations) with partners in the biomedical sciences at four US institutions. Her team is implementing a program that brings essential insights from sociology, science and technology studies, equity, and anti-racism scholarship and practice to bear on the culture of science beginning with everyday laboratory life. The DE-SILO Project offers a course package that laboratories can implement, which includes core curriculum and community building learning modules, with the goal of enacting tangible change in laboratory environments.

FACULTY PROFILE PERSONAL WEBSITE

Keywords: 
sociology of health and illness, science and technology studies, inequality, organizations & institutions, scientific labor, qualitative methods
First Name: 
Melanie
Last Name: 
Jeske