Education:

B.A., Hotel/Restaurant Management, Mercyhurst University

M.A., Bioethics & Medical Humanities; MPH, Case Western Reserve University

ABOUT

Following a management career in the hospitality and corporate retail sectors and a personal journey with infertility, I returned to academia in order to understand the social, cultural, medical, and political forces that drive reproductive choice and access. I am especially interested in the way American society translates (or doesn’t) human rights into reproductive rights, and the ways those rights are asymmetrically applied. I am concerned with the ways in which society uses policing (both law enforcement and social policing), policy, and propaganda to message and nudge people into specific reproductive decisions, both for themselves and others, and the ways White and Christian nationalisms influence these processes.

Additional research interests include medical sociology, health disparities, reproductive ethics, conceptions of motherhood and non-motherhood, and social control of the body and of the family unit.

Email: michelle.gotto@case.edu