Stephen
Molldrem is an Associate Professor and the Research Program Director in
Bioethics and Health Humanities at The University of Texas Medical Branch. He
is an ethnographer, qualitative social researcher, and health policy scholar
situated mainly in Science and Technology Studies (STS). He also works across
public health ethics, data studies, queer studies, and global health. His
collaborative and interdisciplinary work has been funded by numerous agencies,
including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science
Foundation (NSF).
Stephen’s
main body of research focuses on how the ongoing incorporation of digital
infrastructures and pathogen genomics into public health programs is
reconfiguring the politics and practice of infectious disease control. His
research on pathogen genomics in the US, Botswana, and global health policy has
addressed numerous ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) stemming from
uses of these technologies in HIV, TB, and SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 programs. His
papers have shown how uses of pathogen genomics in disease control programs
have played key roles in reshaping relations between scientific institutions,
public health agencies, and social movements led by people living with and
affected by infectious diseases. This work includes studies of how pathogen
genomics have impacted framings of infectious disease evolution and
transmission among experts and lay publics – including journalists, activists,
and affected groups. He has also documented how pathogen genomics have changed
the politics of consent in US HIV programs, leading social movement actors to
ask for reforms. His work has also brought insights from queer studies to
analyses of public health, showing how US HIV programs that use digital and
genomic technologies have shifted how public health institutions govern
sexuality in relation to transmission risk.
Stephen
maintains active projects in other areas. These include studies on the ethics
and practice of translational science, on the history of sexuality in relation
to HIV/AIDS, and on the changing place of consent in public health programs for
the digital era. He has published widely in leading journals, including The
American Journal of Bioethics, Social Studies of Science, Health
Policy, BioSocieties, Global Public Health, The Milbank
Quarterly, The Lancet Microbe, and others.
Affiliations
- UTMB School of Public and Population Health
- UTMB Institute for Bioethics and Health Humanities
- UTMB Institute for Translational Sciences