Sabrina McCormick

Sabrina McCormick is jointly appointed in the Department of Sociology and the Environmental Science and Policy Program. Broadly, her research interests involve the intersections between health and environment, environmental social movements, the role of science in politics, and the development of participatory institutions around environmental decision-making.

Dr. McCormick's book, entitled No Family History: Finding the Environmental Links to Breast Cancer , will be released by Rowman & Littlfield this year. It explores the political economy of breast cancer, and follows the stories of environmental breast cancer advocates who direct attention to environmental causes of the illness rather than detection, treatment, and cure. Her documentary film by the same title will accompany the book. Dr. McCormick also studies energy policy and the anti-dam movement in Brazil , with particular attention to new participatory mechanisms the movement has developed. She directed a documentary short, Damming Brazil , which portrays conflicts over hydroelectric dams in that country. She is also completing a related manuscript, tentatively entitled Democratizing Science: Movements in a Knowledge Society , which explores the emergence of activism around contesting and shaping expert knowledge.