Contested Illnesses

Contested Illnesses Research Group
Brown University , Providence RI

Tania Jenkins is a PhD student in sociology at Brown University. Her research interests encompass medical sociology, sociology of knowledge (medical/scientific knowledge in particular), legal sociology, science and technology studies, and the sociology of environment. She hopes to eventually pursue dissertation work that will focus on the intersection between medical, legal and environmental sociology by examining mass toxic tort litigation as a means of contestation used by patients with illnesses that have putative environmental causes. She thereby hopes to investigate the role of legal institutions in the social construction of medical knowledge surrounding environmental health.