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Contested Illnesses Research Group
Brown University , Providence RI

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Laura Senier

The principal theme that animates all of my interests in sociology concerns risk. My dissertation explores how genomics is influencing public health research and practice in the United States. I explore how the interpretation of risk estimates of the effect of gene-environment interactions in the development of common, chronic conditions is complicated by the different theoretical models of disease causation that medicine and public health apply to epidemiologic research. I will also examine how the conduct of epidemiologic research on gene-environment interactions is likely to influence the relationship between the sister professions of medicine and public health, which share joint responsibility for the health of individuals and the health of the nation. I am also working on a project applying GIS methods and spatial analyses to explore the siting of public elementary and secondary schools near toxic waste sites and polluting industries in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. My master's thesis focused on parental confidence in vaccine safety. Drawing on interviews with 20 parents, I examined how they process information about risks and consequences of disease and the risks and benefits of vaccines, and how they evaluate the trustworthiness of different sources of information about vaccine safety.

I have received a fellowship from the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation for the 2007-2008 academic year. From 2005-2007, I worked for Phil Brown as a Research Assistant on the Community Outreach Core of the Brown University Superfund Basic Research Program. Through the Outreach Core, Brown provides technical assistance and leadership development training to community-based organizations throughout Rhode Island that are coping with toxic contamination. Since 2003, I have been a member of the Contested Illnesses Research Group , and under the direction of Phil Brown and Rachel Morello-Frosch, I participated in research projects that sought to characterize the field of health social movements and advance the theoretical and empirical tools for studying them. As part of this project, I worked on a study funded by the National Science Foundation examining coalition formation between labor and environmental organizations, and how they invoke health concerns in staging their campaigns.

I am also engaged in research projects with investigators at other institutions. I am involved in an ongoing multidisciplinary collaboration with a team of researchers at the Boston University School of Public Health on an NIEHS-funded project to identify communication problems that arise among different stakeholders involved in the design of community health studies: community activists, scientists, and government regulators. I am also collaborating with researchers at the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University on a study of health beliefs and behaviors among residents of assisted living facilities.

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