Prof Catherine Waldby

Professor Catherine Waldby is Research Professor in the School of Sociology and former Director (2015-2021) of the Research School of Social Sciences, at the Australian National University. Her researches focuses on social studies of biomedicine and the life sciences. Her recent books include Clinical Labour: Tissue donors and Research Subjects in the Global Bioeconomy (with Melinda Cooper, Duke University Press 2014) and The Oocyte Economy: the changing meanings of human eggs (Duke University Press 2019). With Nikolas Rose and Hannah Landecker, she is the editor of BioSocieties: an interdisciplinary journal for the social studies of life sciences. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and a member of the History and Philosophy committee of the Academy of Science.  She has received national and international research grants for her work on stem cells, blood donation and biobanking.

PhD Social Sciences (Murdoch University); MA Hons First Class (Sydney University); BA (University of Queensland) 1982

Social studies of biomedicine and the life sciences, particularly in HIV/AIDS, the relations between medicine and sexuality, modes of medical imaging and representation, the stem cell sciences, Synthetic Biology and human tissue economies.

Professor Waldby has published six monographs and over fifty papers in a broad range of journals. Her work is highly cited in the humanities and medical sciences as well as the social sciences.