Constance A. Nathanson

Constance A. Nathanson, PhD, has over 40 years of experience in research on sociological dimensions of health and health policy. Her work over the past fifteen years has focused on the history, politics, and sociology of public health policy and policy change in the United States and in its peer developed countries. Recent publications include articles theorizing policy and policy change in public health from a sociological perspective, more substantive articles on tobacco and gun control policy, the role of social movements in policy change, and essays on health inequalities, as well as a book, Disease Prevention as Social Change (2007), that describes and interprets public health policy shifts across time in the United States, France, Great Britain, and Canada. France has been a continuing geographical focus of Nathanson's recent work. She is currently supported by the National Library of Medicine to prepare a book-length manuscript on health crises and institutional and ideological change in public health in France, and. in collaboration with colleagues in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences, is conducting a W.T. Grant supported project to examine the politics of research evidence in American state legislatures. In addition to her research activities, Dr. Nathanson is the co-director of the Columbia Population Research Center and the director of the NICHD-funded training grant in gender, sexuality, and health, located in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences.