Goldsmiths - University of London

Marsha Rosengarten BA, Grad Dip Communications, MA, PhD

Feminist Theory and Science and Technology Studies of biomedical innovations in science and medicine, including HIV, blood, organ and xenotransplantation, drugs and clinical trials. Sexuality and Gender Studies and Theories of the Body.

I joined the department in September 2003, having been a Research Fellow within the UCL Medical College where I undertook an ethnographic and qualitative study of innovations in HIV diagnostics and treatments. Prior to my appointments in the UK, I was a Research Fellow with the National Centre in HIV Social Research, University of New South Wales and responsible for qualitative research on HIV, including research on the relationship between HIV biomedical technologies and changes in the understandings and practices of gay sexual cultures as well as policy involvement on HIV post exposure prophylaxis. My academic career began in Australia as a mature student, beginning with a BA University of Sydney followed by a break of working in the non-government welfare sector on employment, housing and planning issues before completing a Graduate Diplomma in Communications, an MA (by Research Thesis) and a PhD at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Teaching

At the postgraduate level I convene the MA Social Research and teach an option ‘Data Made Flesh’ which examines contemporary debates occurring in the social sciences/humanities that are linked to developments in the fields of biomedicine, biotechnology and science, for instance: ‘the pharmaceutical body’ of Viagra, ‘the fetus’ of ultrasound scanning, and the new ‘biocitizen’ of identity cards. At the undergraduate level, I contribute to second and third year core courses and teach an undergraduate option ‘Sexuality’ based on Michel Foucault’s work and Feminist Theory.

Areas of supervision

Biomedical innovation, Feminist critiques of matter, HIV, Gender and Sexuality. At present I am co-supervising postgraduate research on HIV in women and ante-natal testing, HIV affected children, feminist theory and microbicide research, and the cultural dimensions of new reproductive technologies in Argentina.

Research interests

I am especially interested in the contributions of Feminist Theory and Science and Technology Studies (STS) to the challenges of dealing with the HIV/AIDS epidemic and other areas of biomedical innovation. My work, to date, has included analyses of the pharmaceutical promotion of anti-HIV drugs, the performative function of HIV diagnostic measures and clinical trials, the materialization of 'race' through studies of HIV host genetics, and the relational nature of drugs, diagnostics and sexual practice. Prior to focusing on HIV, I examined the conceptual framing and empirical reporting of organ and xenotransplantation for its unwitting challenge to prevailing cultural presumptions of human difference. Most recently, I have begun work on the controversial development of an HIV prevention biotechnology (PrEP), which involves large scale 'offshore' clinical trials in low and middle income countries. This research has been supported by the Goldsmiths Research and Knowledge Transfer Committee and recently by the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness. My aim is to devise a social research network for rethinking this medical technology, drawing on conceptual developments in STS. In addition to my research activities, as the Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Invention and Social Process I convene an occasional seminar series 'What is Medicine?'.

Selected publications

Journal articles

• Rosengarten, M., Michael, M., Mykhalovskiy, E. & Imrie, J.(2008)'The Challenges of Technological Innovation in HIV' Lancet, Aug 2;372 (9636):357-8.
• Rosengarten, M. & Michael, M (2009) ‘Rethinking the bioethical enactment of drugged bodies: On the paradoxes of using anti-HIV drug therapy as a technology for prevention’ Special Issue on ‘Living Drugs’ Science as Culture. Guest editors:  Suzanne Fraser, Celia Roberts and Kylie Valentine. Vol.18 (2) 183-200. 
• Mykhalovskiy, E & Rosengarten, M. (2009) ‘Commentaries on the nature of social and cultural research: interviews on HIV/AIDS with Judy Auerbach, Susan Kippax, Steven Epstein, Didier Fassin, Barry Adam and Denis Altman.’ Social Theory & Health co-edited and introduced Eric Mykhalovskiy & Marsha Rosengarten. Vol 7/3.
  
• Rosengarten, M. (2004) 'Consumer activism in the pharmacology of HIV' Body and Society 10,1 pp 91-107.
• Rosengarten, M. (2004) 'The Challenge of HIV for Feminist Theory' Special Issue of Feminist Theory: Feminist Theory and/of Science. Guest Editor: Susan M. Squier. 5/2 pp 205-222.
• Rosengarten, M., Imrie, J., Flowers, P. Davis, M.,Hart, G.J. (2004) 'After the Euphoria: HIV medical technologies from the perspective of London based clinicians' Sociology of Health & Illness 26/5. pp 575-596.
• Waldby, C., Rosengarten, M., Treloar, C. and Fraser, S. (2004) 'Blood and Bioidentity: Ideas about Self, Boundaries and Risk among Blood Donors and people living with Hepatitis C' Social Science and Medicine, Vol 59, Issue 7, October pp 1461-1471.
• Keane, H. & Rosengarten, M. (2002) 'On the Biology of Sexed Subjects' Australian Feminist Studies, Vol 17, 39, November, pp 261-278.
• Rosengarten, M. (2000) ‘Thinking Menstrual Blood’ Australian Feminist Studies, Vol. 15, No. 31, pp 91-101.

Journal special issues

• Mykhalovskiy, E. & Rosengarten, M. ‘HIV/AIDS in its third decade: renewed critique in social and cultural analysis’ A special issue of Social Theory and Health (2009)Vol7/3

Books

• Rosengarten, M. 'HIV Interventions: Biomedicine and the Traffic between Information and Flesh' For The Book Series: In Vivo: Cultural Mediations Of Biomedical Science (Eds) P. Thurtle & R. Mitchell, University Of Washington Press (In Press).

Book Chapters:

• Rosengarten, M. & Michael, M(forthcoming 2009) HIV: pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP and the complexities of biomedical prevention in Mark D M Davis and Corinne Squire (eds) HIV, technology and subjectivity: international cases studies of HIV treatment and prevention, Palgrave.
• Rosengarten, M. (2001) 'A pig’s tale: porcine viruses and species boundaries' in Alison Bashford and Claire Hooker (eds.) Contagion: Historical and Cultural Studies, London & New York: Routledge,168–182.
• Rosengarten, M. (2001) 'Transmigrating Organs: Identity and Medical Technology', in John Docker and Gerhard Fischer (eds.), Adventures of Identity: Constructing Multicultural Identities, Tuebingen: Stauffenburg Verlag, 61-72.
• Rosengarten, M. (2005) ‘The Measure of HIV as a Matter of Bioethics’ (eds) Margrit Shildrick and Roxanne Mykitiuk Ethics of the Body: Postconventional Challenges, Cambridge Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp 71-90.

Reports:

• Rosengarten, M. & Murphy, D. ‘Making Connections: Social Research For HIV Vaccine And Microbicide Development’ Commissioned By National Aids Trust, London UK. 2003.
• Rosengarten, M. Race, K. & Kippax, S. '"Touch Wood, Everything Will Be Ok": Gay Men’s Understandings of Clinical Markers in Sexual Practise,' Monograph 7/2000 Sydney: National Centre in HIV Social Research, 2000.