With Inclusion, Steven Epstein argues that strategies to achieve diversity in medical research mask deeper problems, ones that might require a different approach and different solutions. 
Formal concern with this issue, Epstein shows, is a fairly recent phenomenon. Until the mid-1980s, scientists often studied groups of white, middle-aged men—and assumed that conclusions drawn from studying them would apply to the rest of the population. But struggles involving advocacy groups, experts, and Congress led to reforms that forced researchers to diversify the population from which they drew for clinical research. While the prominence of these inclusive practices has offered hope to traditionally underserved groups, Epstein argues that it has drawn attention away from the tremendous inequalities in health that are rooted not in biology but in society.
“Epstein’s use of theory to demonstrate how public policies in the health profession are shaped makes this book relevant for many academic disciplines. . . . Highly recommended.”—Choice 
“A masterful comprehensive overview of a wide terrain.”—Troy Duster, Biosocieties

Inclusion: The Politics of Difference in Medical Research (Chicago Studies in Practices of Meaning)

Politics & Social Sciences

Epstein, Steven

Sociology

University of Chicago Press

With Inclusion, Steven Epstein argues that strategies to achieve diversity in medical research mask deeper problems, ones that might require a different approach and different solutions. Formal concern with this issue, Epstein shows, is a fairly recent phenomenon. Until the mid-1980s, scientists often studied groups of white, middle-aged men—and assumed that conclusions drawn from studying them would apply to the rest of the population. But struggles involving advocacy groups, experts, and Congress led to reforms that forced researchers to diversify the population from which they drew for clinical research. While the prominence of these inclusive practices has offered hope to traditionally underserved groups, Epstein argues that it has drawn attention away from the tremendous inequalities in health that are rooted not in biology but in society. “Epstein’s use of theory to demonstrate how public policies in the health profession are shaped makes this book relevant for many academic disciplines. . . . Highly recommended.”—Choice “A masterful comprehensive overview of a wide terrain.”—Troy Duster, Biosocieties

Social Sciences

The Quest for Sexual Health: How an Elusive Ideal Has Transformed Science, Politics, and Everyday Life

Self-Help

Offering an entryway into the distinctive worlds of sexual health and a window onto their spillover effects, sociologist Steven Epstein traces the development of the concept and parses the debates that swirl around it.\nSince the 1970s, health professionals, researchers, governments, advocacy groups, and commercial interests have invested in the pursuit of something called "sexual health." Under this expansive banner, a wide array of programs have been launched, organizations founded, initiatives funded, products sold—and yet, no book before this one asks: What does it mean to be sexually healthy? When did people conceive of a form of health called sexual health? And how did it become the gateway to addressing a host of social harms and the reimagining of private desires and public dreams?\nConjoining "sexual" with "health" changes both terms: it alters how we conceive of sexuality and transforms what it means to be healthy, prompting new expectations of what medicine can provide. Yet the ideal of achieving sexual health remains elusive and open-ended, and the benefits and costs of promoting it are unevenly distributed across genders, races, and sexual identities. Rather than a thing apart, sexual health is intertwined with nearly every conceivable topical debate—from sexual dysfunction to sexual violence, from reproductive freedom to the practicalities of sexual contact in a pandemic. In this book Steven Epstein analyzes the rise, proliferation, uptake, and sprawling consequences of sexual health activities, offering critical tools to assess those consequences, expand capacities for collective decision making, and identify pathways that promote social justice.

Perspectives from the Past is the most flexible and substantial reader for use in the two-semester Western Civilizations course. The wealth of selections accommodates most any course curriculum, and the readings may be used on their own or in conjunction with a textbook.

Perspectives from the Past: Primary Sources in Western Civilizations: From the Ancient Near East through the Age of Absolutism

History

Cole, Joshua

BROPHY, JAMES M.

Safley, Thomas Max

Robertson, John.

Ancient Civilizations

W.W.Norton&Company

Perspectives from the Past: Primary Sources in Western Civilizations: From the Age of Exploration through Contemporary Times

Europe

Includes over three hundred primary sources. Provides a rich variety of selections including literature, eyewitness accounts, and public documents. Offers pieces that range in length from one to seven pages. Takes a Continental perspective that gives a wide view of history-incorporates documents from political, cultural, social, and economic history. Uses broad themes to make numerous connections within and across periods. Includes pedagogical aids: an introduction to reading documents, development of contextual foundation, headnotes; non-interpretive footnotes, and several review questions.

Perspectives from the Past: Primary Sources in Western Civilizations : From Early Modern Era Through Contemporary Times

Nilan, Cat

Americas

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

In the short, turbulent history of AIDS research and treatment, the boundaries between scientist insiders and lay outsiders have been crisscrossed to a degree never before seen in medical history. Steven Epstein's astute and readable investigation focuses on the critical question of "how certainty is constructed or deconstructed," leading us through the views of medical researchers, activists, policy makers, and others to discover how knowledge about AIDS emerges out of what he calls "credibility struggles." Epstein shows the extent to which AIDS research has been a social and political phenomenon and how the AIDS movement has transformed biomedical research practices through its capacity to garner credibility by novel strategies. Epstein finds that nonscientist AIDS activists have gained enough of a voice in the scientific world to shape NIH–sponsored research to a remarkable extent. Because of the blurring of roles and responsibilities, the production of biomedical knowledge about AIDS does not, he says, follow the pathways common to science; indeed, AIDS research can only be understood as a field that is unusually broad, public, and contested. He concludes by analyzing recent moves to democratize biomedicine, arguing that although AIDS activists have set the stage for new challenges to scientific authority, all social movements that seek to democratize expertise face unusual difficulties. Avoiding polemics and accusations, Epstein provides a benchmark account of the AIDS epidemic to date, one that will be as useful to activists, policy makers, and general readers as to sociologists, physicians, and scientists.

Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge (Medicine and Society)

Medical Books

Administration & Medicine Economics

University of California Press

Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge (Medicine and Society) (Volume 7)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Diseases & Physical Ailments

Wills and Wealth in Medieval Genoa, 1150-1250 (Harvard Historical Studies)

Business & Money

Economics

Harvard University Press

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