GARETH A. F. EDEL
Email: garethedel@gmail.com Phone#: (646)479-3236 Address: 39-50 46th Street, Sunnyside NY 11104
EDUCATION
PhD, Dept. Science & Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, Dec. 2014. Dissertation: Navigating Choice: Medical Tourism, Travel, & Care In The New Global Biomedicine, Advisor Nancy D Campbell, Committee Members: Linda Layne, Michael Mascarenhas, Mary Anne Staniszewski.
MS, Dept. Science & Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, Dec. 2012
Certificate in Culture, Health, and Science Studies, Five College Inc., Amherst, MA, 2001
BA in Social-cultural Studies of Science and Medicine, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, 2000
Academic Employment:
2015 – Current Adjunct Assistant Professor, Dept. Social Sciences, HS&CJ; BMCC, CUNY, NYC, NY
2016 – Current Adjunct Assistant Professor, ST&S Program; NJIT, Newark, NJ
2013 Graduate Student Fellow, Sustainability Studies Program, RPI, Troy, NY.
2011- 2012 Graduate Fellow, Design Innovation & Society Program, RPI, Troy, NY.
2007- 2009 Graduate Teaching Assistantships, RPI, Troy, NY.
Teaching Experience:
Understanding Technological Society – Science Technology and Society NJIT, Fall 2016
Introduction to Anthropology – The Four Fields BMCC, Fall 2015, Spring 2016
Research Design (Supervised Masters & Undergraduate Honors Theses) RPI, Spring 2013
Product Design and Innovation- Studio One RPI, Fall 2011, Fall 2012
(Co-taught introduction to design theories, skills and practice with Burt Swersey (Engineering), Audrey Bennett (Communications and Media).
Teaching Assistant RPI Spring 2007 – Fall 2009 Sustainability Education (Professor: Kim Fortun), Information Technology and Society (Professor: Atsushi Akera); Introduction to Science and Technology Studies (Professor: Edward Woodhouse); Professional Development II: Leadership (Professor: L. Montgomery Rhinehart); Politics and Economics of Information Technology (Professor: Atsushi Akera)
PUBLICATIONS
Manuscripts in Submission
Manuscripts in Preparation
Beyond Choice- Discourses of choice in Medicine, Politics and American Life, book Manuscript in editorial Process.
Comparative Suffering, book Manuscript in early editorial Process.
Smiling in the front of house – Norms and professionalization of Service work, Chapters and Introduction for Reader
Manuscript, Co-Edited with Alexander Stingl,
“Navigating Choice- Medical tourism After the PPACA, a review”
“Our Special Concerns- Institutionalization and political culture of Medical tourism in the Philippines”,
“From Health Travel To Medical tourism- Contemporary breach from traditional forms of travel for health”,
“Remediation – Agency, Time and Youtube.com” Co-authored with Candice Lanius,
“Agency and automation, Traffic lights and increasing demand for flexibility in control of social spaces” ,
“Kairos in the Act, Time’s effect on Meaning and Persuasivness” Co-authored with Josh Comer,
Encyclopedia Entries
“Organ Transplantation;” and “Traffic Light;” Articles for The Encyclopedia of Discovery and Invention,
Ed. by James Ciment. M.E. Sharpe Inc., Accepted, in press, expected 2015
“Eugenics” Article for The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Social Issues, Ed. By Michael
Shally-Jensen, ABC CLIO, Santa Barbara, California, 2011
“Eugenics” Entry, Encyclopedia of Scientific Controversies, Ed. by Sal Restivo, Greenwood Press, 2008
Other Publications
“Challenging Potentials of Technological Mediated Knowledge Production” White paper, Co-author
Nathan Fisk, NSF SBE: Future Research in SBE
Grants
2009- 2011 HASS Fellowship, Competitive Internal Institutional Grant, School of Humanities
Arts and Social Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
2008- 2009 Chemical Heritage Foundation, Event Enrichment Funding to the Student Section of the
Society for Social Studies of Science
2009 & 2010 Society for the Social Study of Science, Student Travel Award
Committee Service
2011 Student Committee of the Administrative Search Committee, Hiring of new Dean of School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS), School of HASS, RPI
2008-2010 International Student Representative, Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)
2007-2013 Colloquium Committee member, Department of STS, RPI
1999 President’s Committee on Re-Accreditation, Hampshire College, Amherst MA.
1997-1998 School of Natural Science Search Committee, Hampshire College, Amherst MA
Professional Memberships
2006- 2016 Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)
1999- 2016 American Anthropological Association
Sections: Medical Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology
2008-2011 International Communications Association, Student Member
Invited Talks
2011 “Asking What Medical Tourism Is, and How to Think about Global Medicine?” Maastricht University,
Department of Health, Ethics and Society; Course: Module entitled “Governing Health in a Global Context”, Asst. Prof. Nora Engel
Guest Lecturer
2012 “Durkheim and Religion” RPI, STS, Introduction to Sociology, Adj. Prof. N.Fisk
2011 ” Sociology of Religion & the Durkheimian ‘Real’ “RPI, STS, Intro. to Sociology, Adj. Prof. N. Fisk
2011 “Marginality, Gender & Medicine” RPI, STS, Medicine & Society, Adj. Prof. S.Valdiya
2010 “Medical Tourism & Global Medicine” RPI, STS, Medicine & Society, Adj. Prof. A. Khandekar
2009 “Health, Poverty & Systems of Marginality” RPI, STS, Intro. to Sociology, Adj. Prof. S. Sebinovia
Selected Panel and Conference Presentations
“Choice vs. Care: Reflexivity in Theoretical Framing of a Dissertation Hybrid Contexts”, STS Graduate Student
Conference, MIT, (Cambridge, MA) March 2012
“Medical Tourism and Free Market Reform”, AAA Annual Meeting (Montreal, Quebec) Included in the panel
entitled: “Redefining Insurance, Redefining Governance: the US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in Global Perspective.” 2011
“The Good Medicine: Technology, Medical Tourism, and Transnational Exchange”, Meetings of the Society for
Social Studies of Science – International Society Meeting (Cleveland, OH) 2011
“Global Transformation in Science, Technology and Medicine”, Panel Co-Organized with Maral Erol (Duke
University), Meetings of the Society for Social Studies of Science (Cleveland, OH) 2011
“Making Themselves Healthy: Classification and Patient Roles in Medical Tourist Travel Narratives”, AAA Annual
Meeting, (Philadelphia, PA) Dec 2009
“Making the Healthy Self and the Unhealthy Self: Neoliberal Identity, Category, and Self-hood”, Meetings of the
Society for Social Studies of Science – International Society Meeting (Washington, DC) – September 2009
“Science-fiction, Promises and Threats in Popular Communication”, International Communication Association
Meetings (Chicago, IL) May 2009
“Reinventing Risks: Conceiving Environmental Hazard and Human Initiated Bio-threat”, Meetings of the
International Association of Science and Technology Studies, (RIT, Rochester, NY) April 2009
“From Health Travel To Health Tourism: A Discursive Analysis”, Meetings of the Society for Social Studies of
Science – International Society Meeting (Rotterdam, Holland) August 2008
“Lost (and Found) in Transnationalism”, Panel Organizer (with Aalok Khandekar RPI, STS) Meetings of the Society
for Social Studies of Science – International Society Meeting (Rotterdam, Holland) August 2008
“Intertextual Intersexual: The Coding and Coconstruction of Sexual Identity”CCC, STS Graduate Conference-MIT
(Cambridge, MA) 2009
“Twix Candy Bars in Cyber Space: The Emergence of Meaning and Persuasiveness of Situation on Youtube.com.”
Critical theory and contemporary rhetoric. EXChange – STS Graduate Conference – Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) 2008
“The Future of Feminism”, Panelist, Hampshire College Alumni Conference (Amherst, MA) 2000
Research Experience
Ethnographic Case Study –Dissertation, RPI – Manila, Philippines (4 months) and Chennai, India (1 month)– 2010
Ethnographic Case Study: Gastronomy Workers in Germany and The United States, in collaboration with
Alexander Stingle, Adjunct Lecturer, Leuphana University, Luneburg Germany. In Progress, Initiated 2011
Ethnographic Fieldwork – Methods Course, RPI – Five three day periods of observation of small group Interaction
divided between Manhattan, NY and Troy, NY. – 2006
Archival Research – Methods Course, RPI – Archive visits at the SUNY Albany Campus, and New York City Public
Library. – 2006
Ethnographic Interviewing – Undergraduate Methods Course, Mt. Holyoke College/Hampshire College – 10
interviews and follow up interviews with students and faculty of the Five College campuses. – 1999
Structured Interviewer- NY City Life Histories Project- conducted extended oral history interviews with elderly
New Yorkers. – 1994-5; 1998
Teaching Areas/Courses Prepared to Teach
Introduction to Science Technology and Society/ Understanding Technological Society
Imagined Futures – Controversies in Science and Technology Today
Introduction, Theory and Research Methods in Cultural or General Anthropology
Introduction to Sociology
Contemporary & Classical Social Theory
Biomedicine Today- Social Science Approaches to Medicine
Global Medicine, Medical Tourism and Transnational Healthcare – Understanding bodies across borders