Epstein Named John C. Shaffer Professor in the Humanities

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Steven Epstein, professor of sociology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), will join Northwestern University in September as the John C. Shaffer Professor in the Humanities. The appointment is with both the sociology department of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities.

Epstein’s research has included a focus on health and science policy, gender, sexuality, race, social movements and the sociology of sexuality, as well as related fields of study. He has written extensively on the HIV/AIDS epidemic and AIDS activism.

He is the author of two prize-winning books: “Inclusion: The Politics of Difference in Medical Research” and “Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge.” He has won numerous awards, including the American Sociological Association’s award for Dissertation of the Year, various book awards and the UCSD’s top research prize, the Chancellor’s Associates Faculty Excellence Award.

Epstein expects to be active with the Science in Human Culture Program and the Gender Studies Program at Northwestern.

Epstein has been a professor at the University of California, San Diego for the last 15 years and was affiliated with the Critical Gender Studies Program and the Ethnic Studies Department. He was director of Science Studies from 2006 to 2008.

Epstein was a fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences in 2008-09.

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