Skip to main content

Principal Investigators

Torin Monahan

Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Torin Monahan studies the social and cultural dimensions of surveillance systems, with a specific focus on gender and racial inequalities. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Surveillance & Society and is author of seven books, including Crisis Vision: Race and the Cultural Production of Surveillance (2022, Duke University Press).

Jill A. Fisher

Ph.D.

Professor, Center for Bioethics and Department of Social Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Jill Fisher has been conducting research on pharmaceutical clinical trials for nearly two decades. She is the author of Medical Research for Hire: The Political Economy of Pharmaceutical Clinical Trials (2009, Rutgers University Press) and Adverse Events: Race, Inequality, and the Testing of New Pharmaceuticals (2020, New York University Press).

Co-Investigator

Margaret Waltz

Ph.D.

Research Associate, Department of Social Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Margaret Waltz received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Case Western Reserve University where she researched patients’ experiences of waiting in medical waiting rooms and how medical institutions structure patients’ time. She also works on the ethical and social issues that emerge as a result of developments in genomic technologies.

Research Consultant

Maral Erol

Ph.D.

Research Specialist, Department of Social Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Maral Erol is an interdisciplinary social scientist with a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies (STS) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and fifteen years of academic work experience in several universities in the US and Turkey. She has published on a range of topics, including medicalization of menopause and andropause, perceptions of osteoporosis and risk, functional foods, and the institutionalization of STS in Turkey.

Statistician

Yu Tao

Ph.D.

Associate Professor, School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Stevens Institute of Technology

Yu Tao’s research analyzes issues related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce. She also examines online privacy and fair privacy from the sociological perspective. She is the co-editor of the book Changing the Face of Engineering: The African American Experience (2015, Johns Hopkins University Press, with John Brooks Slaughter and Willie Pearson, Jr.), and her research has published in journals including American Behavioral Scientist, Minerva, and Information, Communication and Society.

Statistician

Marc Hetherington

Ph.D.

Raymond Dawson Distinguished Bicentennial Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Marc Hetherington studies the American electorate, with a particular focus on the polarization of public opinion. He has published four academic monographs, including Prius or Pickup?: How the Answers to Four Simple Questions Explain America’s Great Divide (2018, Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt; co-authored with Jonathan Weiler).

Research Assistant

Amelia Parker

B.A.

Ph.D. Student, Department of Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Amelia Parker received her B.A. from California State University, Monterey Bay in social justice education curriculum development and presently focuses on identifying power misuse and disparities in higher education. In her research, Amelia maps how professionalism is an expectation created and enforced by white supremacy. How are we surveilled through power modalities of gaze and how are we punished when we do not present ourselves in a “permitted” way: modestly, quietly, and appropriately?