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Dr Celia Roberts

Sociology: Senior Lecturer

Degree: PhD

Associated research centres and groups: Centre for Gender and Women's Studies, Centre for Science Studies

Current Teaching

Teaching and Departmental Roles

From 2012 I am Co-Director of the Centre for Gender and Women's Studies with Imogen Tyler.

I am co-teaching the core methods course, 'Research Projects in Practice',for our MA programme, with Tom Birtchnell. I am also contributing to Part 1 Gender and Women's Studies, to a Gender and Women's Studies MA Module, 'Feminist Technoscience Studies' (taught as an intensive 1 week course in May 2012) and to our undergraduate dissertation module.

Research Interests

I have been in Lancaster since February 2001.I have long had strong ties with the Centre for Gender and Women's Studies, the Centre for Science Studies, the Division of Health Research, and the ESRC Centre for the Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics (CESAGen). My research centres on the body, health, reproduction, sexuality and aging.

I am currently writing a book, provisionally entitled Puberty in Crisis: a bio-social account. The book tracks a variety of discourses constituting contemporary puberty, coming from biomedicine, technoscience, environmentalist movements and popular media. This works builds on my earlierbook, Messengers of Sex: hormones, biomedicine and feminism (Cambridge University Press, 2007), which explores the role of hormones in producing sexually differentiated bodies (http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521681971).Here I critically analyse scientific and biomedical texts, pharmaceutical advertisements, patient leaflets, and popular media accounts of sex hormones and how they work in our bodies. I have published several articles on this area (see below), with a particular focus on hormone replacement therapy. I am interested in questions of responsibility and risk in contemporary biomedicine, and in how patients come to make decisions about engaging with new medical technologies.

I am also the co-author (with Sarah Franklin) of a book on genetics and reproduction, entitled Born and Made: An ethnography of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (Princeton University Press, 2006) (http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8313.html). This work is based on three years of ethnographic research of the so-called 'designer baby technique' (preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD). This research was funded by the ESRC and MRC within the Innovative Health Technologies programme. With Franklin and Karen Throsby (Warwick University), I have also studied the donation of embryos to stem cell research within the PGD clinic (funded by the Wellcome Trust and CESAGen). Karen Throsby and I continued this work in genetics together, working on obesity and early puberty.

My interest in new biomedical technologies has led to collaboration with colleagues in the Division of Health Research and the Centre for Science Studies. I have participated in 4 projects funded by the European Commission, two of which are ongoing. In chronological order these are:

1) A Thematic Network entitled 'Identifying Trends in European Medical Space' (ITEMS), which provides opportunities for scholars and students working on health and medical from social science and humanities' perspectives to come together at meetings and conferences and to develop international projects (see http://www.csi.ensmp.fr/WebCSI/ITEMS/index.htm);

2) A Specific Support Action called 'Governance, health, and medicine: Opening dialogue between social scientists and users' (MEDUSE), which focussed on three areas of research, including the use of new technologies to care for older people living at home (see http://www.csi.ensmp.fr/WebCSI/MEDUSE/);

3) A collaborative research project led by Lancaster, with partners in The Netherlands, Norway and Spain, entitled 'Ethical Frameworks for Telecare Technologies' (EFORTT) (see http://www.lancs.ac.uk/efortt/). This project, led by our group at Lancaster, is focussing on older people living at home, and looking at the development of new care technologies to assist them in this. In essence, we are investigating what 'care' for older people means today. This project involves ethnographic research and citizens' panels;

4) A collaborative research project led by colleagues at the Ecole des Mines, Paris, with partners in Ireland, the UK and Portugal entitled 'European Patient Organisations in Knowledge Society' (EPOKS) (See http://www.csi.ensmp.fr/WebCSI/EPOKSWebSite/).This project is investigating patient organisations across a range of health conditions. In the Lancaster part of the project, Imogen Tyler, Candice Satchwelland I are looking at British birth organisations and their impact on women's health. This is an ethnographic project.

In the past, I have also worked on research projects on breast cancer, HIV/AIDS and heterosexuality, and gender equity in public institutions.

Finally, I am a co-editor of Feminist Theory and recently co-edited, with Myra Hird, a special issue of Feminist Theory on 'non-human feminisms'.

Some publications

On hormones:

C. Roberts. 2007. Messengers of Sex: Hormones, biomedicine and feminism. Cambridge University Press.

C. Roberts. 2010. Early Puberty and Public Health: A social scientific pinboard, Critical Public Health 20(4): 429-38

C. Roberts, k. valentine and S. Fraser (2009) Rationalities and non-rationalities in clinical encounters: Methadone maintenance treatment and hormone replacement therapy, Science as Culture, Special Issue on 'Living Drugs' 18(2)

C. Roberts. 2006. 'What can I do to help myself?' Somatic individuality and contemporary hormonal bodies, Science Studies 19(2): 54-76

C. Roberts. 2004. Sex, Race and "Unnatural" Difference, European Journal of Women's Studies 11(1): 27-44

C. Roberts. 2003. Drowning in a Sea of Estrogens: Sex hormones, sexual reproduction and sex. Sexualities 6(2), 97-115 http://sexualities.sagepub.com/content/vol6/issue2/

C. Roberts. 2002. "Successful Aging" with Hormone Replacement Therapy: It may be sexist, but what if it works? Science as Culture 11(1) March, 39-59

C. Roberts. 2001. "A Matter of Embodied Fact": Sex hormones and the history of Bodies. Feminist Theory 3(1) 7-26

C. Roberts. 2000. Biological Behavior? Hormones, psychology and sex. The Science and Politics of the Search for Sex Differences: A Special Issue of the NWSA Journal, 12(3): 1-20.

C. Roberts. 2000. Sex Hormones as Biocultural Actors: Rethinking biology, sexual difference and health. In Women's Health: An International Reader. Routledge. J. M. Ussher (ed.): 572-587.

C. Roberts. 1998. Thinking Biological Materiality. Australian Feminist Studies, 14(29): 131-139.

On genetics and reproduction:

S. Franklin and C. Roberts. 2006. Born and Made: An ethnography of preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Princeton University Press.

K. Throsby and C. Roberts. 2010. Getting Bigger: children's bodies, genes and environments. In S. Parry and J. Dupre (eds), Nature After the Genome, Wiley Blackwell, pp. 73-92

C. Roberts and K. Throsby. 2008. Paid to Share: IVF patients, eggs and stem cell research. Social Science and Medicine 66(1): 159-69.

C. Roberts. 2008. Relating Simply? Feminist science studies, reproduction and technoscience in the early twenty-first century. Australian Feminist Studies.

Roberts, C. 2006. Enacting gender in reproductive medicine, in Wieser, Bernhard, Sandra Karner and Wilhelm Berger (eds.): Prenatal Testing: Individual Decision or Distributed Action? München, Wien: Profil, pp. 87-100.

C. Roberts and S. Franklin 2004. Experiencing New Forms of Genetic Choice: Findings from an ethnographic study of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Human Fertility 7(4): 285-293.

C. Roberts. 2003. Genetic Information and Choice in the Context of Reproductive Decision-making: Findings from an ethnographic study of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, Proceedings of Genetics and Reproduction in the 21st Century: The myth of choice? Human Genetics Commission.

C. Roberts. 2001. Listening to 'gene talk'. Science as Culture 10(4), December, 573-579

On technoscience and biomedicine, telecare, cancer and sexuality:

C. Roberts and M.J. Hird. 2011. Editors, 'Non-human feminisms', Specialissue ofFeminist Theory 12(2)

C. Roberts and M. Mort. Forthcoming. Calling for Care: 'Disembodied' care, teleoperators and older people living at home, Sociology

C. Milligan, C. Roberts and M. Mort. 2011. Telecare and Older People: Who cares where? Social Science and Medicine 72(3): 347-54

C. Roberts and M. Mort. 2009. Reshaping what counts as care:older people, work and new technologies, Alter, European Journal of Disability Research, Special Issue, http://www.em-consulte.com/revue/alter/s200/9960

C. Waldby and C. Roberts (2008) Editors, 'Festschrift for Sue Kippax,' Australian Feminist Studies Special Section 23(58)

Fraser, S., Valentine, K & Roberts, C. 2009. 'Living Drugs'. In Living Drugs, Special issue of Science as Culture 18(2): 123-131

M. Mort, C. Milligan, C. Roberts and I. Moser (eds). 2008. Ageing, Technology and Home Care, Presses de l'Ecole des Mines: Paris

C. Roberts and A. Mackenzie. 2006. Science. Theory, Culture and Society: Problematizing Global Knowledge, Special Issue 23(2-3): 157-163. http://tcs.sagepub.com/content/vol23/issue2-3/

C. Roberts. 2006. Medicine and the making of a sexual body, in Handbook of the New Sexuality Studies, Steven Seidman, Nancy Fischer, Chet Meeks (eds) Routledge: New York and London

C. Roberts and K. Throsby. 2006. 'Encouraging dissent': contemporary challenges to bioethics [review essay] Australian Feminist Studies 21(50): 289-291

Liebert B, Parle M, Roberts C, et al. 2003. An evidence based specialist breast nurse role in practice: A multi-centre implementation study. European Journal of Cancer Care, March 12(1): 91-7

C. Roberts. 2001. Critical Consumers: Ideas for breast cancer advocacy. Queensland Women's Health Journal 1(1), 5-16.

C. Roberts, S. Kippax, M. Spongberg and J. Crawford. 1996. 'Going Down': Oral Sex, imaginary bodies and HIV. Body and Society 2(3), September: 107-124.

C. Roberts, S. Kippax, C. Waldby and J. Crawford. 1995. Faking It: The Story of 'OHH!' Women's Studies International Forum. 18: 523-32. Reprinted in Sexualities: Identities, Behaviors, and Society, Kimmel, M.S. and Plante, R.F. (eds) Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004 266-274

Potential Doctoral Proposals

Supervision

I am interested in a number of research areas, mostly focusing on issues relating to health, embodiment, sexuality, reproduction and biology.

I have co-supervised 5 PhD students to completion to date and all have passed with no or minor amendments:

• Lin Wen-Yuan (2005) who worked on kidney dialysis in Taiwan;
• Kaori Sasaki (2006) who worked on brain death and organ transplantation in Japan;
• Ranjini C.R. (2006) who worked on health information systems in southern India;
• Anne Rudolph (2009) whose thesis focussed on young lesbian, bi-sexual and queer women's understandings of sexually transmitted infections; and
• Clare Hollowell (2010) who studied young women's experiences of fun.

I have seven current phD students:

• Li-Wen Shih, who is studying reproductive technologies and genetic testing in Taiwan (Taiwanese funding)
• Brigit Morris-Coulton, who is working on mental health recovery and arts practices (ESRC-funded)
• Rebecca Fox, who is working on women with learning disabilities living in secure accomodation (ESRC-funded)
• Kate McNicolas-Smith, who is working on young people and sex education (ESRC-funded)
• Joann Wilkinon, who is researching reproductive biosensors (funded by Intel)
• Oscar Maldonado, researching the HPV vaccine in Colombia, the US and the UK (Colombian government funding)
• Ali Hanbury, also researching the HPV vaccine in the UK (ERC funded).

All of these are empirical research projects, using methods such as participant observation, interviewing, online methods and textual analysis. I am deeply interested in feminist and social theory and am an editor of a leading feminist journal, Feminist Theory. I am very keen to work with postgraduate students on these themes relating to feminist theory, embodiment and sexuality, either in Sociology or Women's Studies. Prospective students should feel free to contact me by email to discuss the possibility of studying at Lancaster.

Eprints Publications Repository and Bibliographic Database

Celia Roberts has 17 selected publication records listed on this webpage. Use links to access abstracts and full text where available. View all records to sort by date, type and title. For all ePrints records go to http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk

Roberts, CM (2007) Messengers of Sex: Hormones, biomedicine and feminism. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-86337-7

Roberts, C. M. and Franklin, S. (2006) Born and Made: An ethnography of preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691-12192-5

Roberts, Celia (2006) Enacting gender in reproductive medicine. In: Prenatal testing: individual decision or distributed action? Profil, München, pp. 87-100.

Roberts, Celia (2006) Medicine and the sexual body. In: Handboook of the new sexuality studies. Routledge, New York, London, pp. 88-96. ISBN 0415386489

Roberts, Celia and Mackenzie, Adrian (2006) Science : experimental sensibilities in practice. Theory, Culture & Society, 23 (2-3). pp. 157-162. ISSN Online ISSN: 1460-3616 Print ISSN: 0263-2764

Roberts, Celia (2006) What can I do to help myself? : Somatic individuality and contemporary hormonal bodies. Science Studies, 19 (2). pp. 54-76.

Roberts, Celia; and Franklin, Sarah. (2004) Experiencing new forms of genetic choice: Findings from an ethnographic study of preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Human Fertility, 7 (4). pp. 285-293. ISSN printed: 1464-7273. electronic: 1742-8149.

Roberts, Celia; and Kippax, Susan; and Waldby, Catherine; and Crawford, June. (2004) Faking it: the story of 'Ohh!'. In: Sexualities: Identities, Behaviors, and Society. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 266-274. ISBN 978-0195157604

Roberts,, Celia (2004) Sex, Race and ‘Unnatural’ Difference: Tracking the Chiastic Logic of Menopause-Related Discourses. European Journal of Women's Studies, 11 (1). pp. 27-44. ISSN paper: 1350-5068, online: 1461-7420

Roberts, C. M. (2003) Drowning in a Sea of Estrogens: sex hormones, sexual reproduction and sex. Sexualities, 6 (2). pp. 195-213. ISSN Online ISSN: 1461-7382 Print ISSN: 1363-4607

Other Interests and Hobbies

Cycling, singing, parenting, travelling, talking....

Associated Keywords: Feminist research methodologies, Feminist theory, Science studies, Science, technology and society, Sociology, Women's studies

View all research activities, ePrints, news and events associated with Celia Roberts.

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