Sociology Faculty

- Title
- Assistant Professor
- Division Social Sciences Division
- Department
- Sociology Department
- Affiliations Legal Studies, Science & Justice Research Center
- Phone 831-459-3516
- Office Location
- Rachel Carson College Academic Building, 203
- Office Hours online by appointment
- Mail Stop Rachel Carson College Faculty Services
- Mailing Address
- 1156 High St.
- Santa Cruz CA 95064
- Faculty Areas of Expertise Sociology, Legal Studies, Science and Technology, Health and Wellness, Human Rights
- Courses SOCY 123: Global and Transnational Perspectives in Science and Technology Studies (Global STS); SOCY/LGST 122: Sociology of Law; LGST 196: Senior Capstone Seminar (Law, Health, and Human Rights)
Summary of Expertise
Jaimie Morse, PhD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Senior Visiting Fellow with the Global Health Justice Partnership at Yale University. She studies knowledge, technology, and policy in biomedicine and public health, with a focus on the interplay of law, health, and human rights in processes of policy change. Her current project examines these dynamics through a focus on the emergence of the sexual assault medical forensic exam (commonly known as the “rape kit”) as a tool of anti-rape activism in emergency medicine in the United States since the 1970s and its adaptation for use with refugees and internally displaced persons. Prior to earning her PhD, she worked for 10 years in the field of public health, domestically and internationally. Her work has been supported by the Social Science Research Council, Newcombe and Woodrow Wilson Fellowships, and the Brocher Foundation.
Research Interests
Legal mobilization in medicine
Global and transnational dimensions of medicine, technology, and law
Science and technology studies
Law and society
Medical sociology
Public policy and inequalities
Qualitative methods
Global health justice
Biography, Education and Training
2018. Ph.D. Department of Sociology, Northwestern University
2006. M.P.H. Department of Community Health Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles
1998. B.A. Departments of Political Science and Economics, University of California, Berkeley
Honors, Awards and Grants
2018. Graduate Student Paper Award - Honorable Mention, Sociology of Law Section, American Sociological Association
2017. Junior Fellow, Brocher Foundation, Hermance, Switzerland
2016. Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
2016. Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship in Women’s Studies
2014-2016. Presidential Fellowship, Northwestern University Society of Fellows
2014. Visiting Scholar, Sciences Po, Paris, France
2013. Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship, Social Science Research Council
2009-2014. Mellon Foundation Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Science Studies, Northwestern University
1999-2000. Fulbright Fellowship, Malawi, Central Africa
Selected Publications
Refereed Journal Articles
Forthcoming. Morse, Jaimie. "The Geopolitics of 'Rape Kit' Protocols: Historical Problems in Translation as Humanitarian Medicine Meets International Law." Osiris. Volume 36, "Therapeutic Properties: Global Medical Cultures, Knowledge, and Law" (2021).
2019. Morse, Jaimie. "Legal Mobilization in Medicine: Nurses, Rape Kits, and the Emergence of Forensic Nursing in the United States since the 1970s." Social Science & Medicine. 222:323-334.
2014. Morse, Jaimie. "Documenting Mass Rape: Medical Evidence Collection Techniques as Humanitarian Technology." Genocide Studies and Prevention. 8:63-79.
Book Chapters
2016. Heimer, Carol A. and Jaimie Morse. “Colonizing the Clinic: The Adventures of Law in HIV Treatment and Research” in Studying Law Globally: New Legal Realist Perspectives, eds. Heinz Klug and Sally Engle Merry, Cambridge University Press (p. 69-95).
2015. Heimer, Carol A. and Jaimie Morse. “Law, Sociology of” in International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Second Edition, ed. James D. Wright, Elsevier Limited Press (p. 598-603).
2014. Hagan, John and Jaimie Morse. “State Rape and The Crime of Genocide” in The Oxford Handbook on Gender, Sex, and Crime, eds. Rosemary Gartner and Bill McCarthy, Oxford University Press (p. 690-708).
Teaching Interests
Sociology of Health, Illness, and Biomedicine
Sociology of Knowledge, Technology, and Science
Science and Technology Studies (STS)
Sociology of Law
Law & Society
Gender and Sexuality Studies
Cultural Sociology
Historical Sociology
Global and Transnational Sociology
Global and Community Health