I am an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Rutgers University and I write, research and speak about medicine, science, politics, gender and the body. My first book, Not Tonight: Migraine and the Politics of Gender and Health, examines the gendered social values embedded in the way we talk about, understand, and make policies for people in pain. In 2016, the American Sociological Association’s Medical Sociology Section awarded Not Tonight the Eliot Freidson Outstanding Publication Award.

I also study the production of “forbidden knowledge.” My early work demonstrates how scientists come to understand which science is too controversial, sensitive or taboo to study. Now I spend my time studying how patients manage to make knowledge about the efficacy of psychedelic medicine .

I received my PhD from Penn’s Department of Sociology and I worked as a Research Associate at the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University. I was also a postdoctoral fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Health Policy Research Program at the University of Michigan from 2004-2006.

Follow me on twitter: www.twitter.com/joannakempner

You can also read my posts on  migraine.com

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