Susan E. Bell
A. Myrick Freeman Professor of Social Sciences
Fall 2009
- Advanced Independent Study and Honors in Anthropology (ANTH 401)
- Classics of Sociological Theory (SOC 211)
- Global Health Matters (SOC 224)
- Global Health Matters (SOC 224L1)
- Global Health Matters (SOC 224L2)
- Advanced Independent Study and Honors in Sociology (SOC 401)
| Phone | (207) 725-3292 |
| Title | A. Myrick Freeman Professor of Social Sciences |
| Department | Sociology And Anthropology |
| Work Location | 315 Adams Hall |
| sbell@bowdoin.edu |
Education
Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Sociology, Department of Psychiatry at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Harvard Medical School
PhD., Sociology, Brandeis University
M.A., Sociology, Brandeis University
History of Ideas, Brandeis University
B.A., Philosophy, Haverford College
The first A. Myrick Freeman Professor of Social Sciences, Susan E. Bell joined the Bowdoin faculty in 1983. Her specialty is the sociology of health and illness, in which she investigates the experience of illness, women's health, and visual and performative representations of the politics of cancer, medicine, and women's bodies.
Selected Publications
DES Daughters
Embodied Knowledge and the Transformation of Women's Health Politics, Temple University Press, 2009
DES Daughters information, resources, and reviews site»
“Gender and the medicalization of health care,” with Anne E. Figert. In Ellen Kuhlmann and Ellen Annandale, eds. Palgrave Handbook of Gender and Healthcare, Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming.
“Visual methods for collecting and analyzing data.” In Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, Raymond DeVries, and Robert Dingwall, eds., Handbook on Qualitative Health Research. Sage Publications, forthcoming.
"Artworks, collective experience, and claims for social justice: the case of women living with breast cancer," with Alan Radley. Sociology of Health & Illness 29(3):366-390, 2007
Abstract | Full Text HTML
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"Living with breast cancer in text and image: Making art to make sense." Qualitative Research in Psychology, special issue on "embodiment" 3(1):31-44, 2006.
Abstract » | PDF
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"Becoming a mother after DES: Intensive mothering in spite of it all." Pp. 233-252 in Anna De Fina, Deborah Schiffrin, and Michael Bamberg, eds. Discourse and Identity. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
"Vaginal politics: Tensions and possibilities in The Vagina Monologues," with Susan M. Reverby, Women's Studies International Forum, 28:430-444, 2005. Click here for a link to V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls.
SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF»
"Intensive performances of mothering: A sociological perspective," Qualitative Research 4(1):45-75, 2004
Abstract » | PDF»
"Sexual synthetics: Women, science, and microbicides," in Monica Casper, ed., Synthetic Planet: Chemical Politics and the Hazards of Modern Life, Routledge, 2003
"Photo images: Jo Spence's narratives of living with illness," Health 6(1):5-30, 2002. Click here to view Jo Spence's photographs.
Abstract » | PDF»
"Experiencing illness in/and narrative," in Chloe Bird, Peter Conrad, Allen Fremont, and Sol Levine, eds., Handbook of Medical Sociology, fifth edition, Prentice-Hall, 2000
"Narratives and lives: Women's health politics and the diagnosis of cancer for DES daughters," Narrative Inquiry 9(2):347-389, 1999
"Birth control," with Lauren Wise (Bowdoin class of '96) and with the assistance of Judith Norsigian and Susannah Cooper-Doyle, in Boston Women's Health Book Collective, eds., Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New Century, Simon and Schuster, 1998
"Gendered medical science: Producing a drug for women." Feminist Studies, 21(3):469-500, 1995.
"Translating science to the people: Updating The New Our Bodies, Ourselves." Women's Studies International Forum, 17(1): 9-18, 1994.
Selected Professional Engagements
Editorial Boards
- Editorial Adviser, Sociology of Health and Illness, 2004-present
- Editorial Board, Health, 2003-present
- Editorial Board, Qualitative Sociology, 1992-2004
- Associate Editor, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 1990-1992
- Editorial Board, Women and Health, 1984-1987
ASA
- Nominations Committee, Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association, (Member, 2000-2001, Chair, 2001-2002) 2000-2002; 2005-2007
- Member, Council of the Science, Knowledge and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association, 2001-2004 (Chair, Hacker-Mullins Award Committee for the best graduate student paper, 2004)
- Chair, Teaching Committee, Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association, 1993-95, 1997-1999
Maine Humanities Council
- Faculty, Humanities at the Heart of Health Care Summer Institute (for the Maine Humanities Council, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities), University of New England, Portland, ME 2002; Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, 2004. Guest lecture, "The Tuskegee Syphilis Study: Race, Class, and Public Health," at the Heart of Health Care Summer Institute, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, 2006
- Facilitator/Scholar, Maine Humanities Council, "Literature and Medicine" monthly seminar, Maine Medical Center, Portland, Maine, 2007, 2008, January-May 2009; January-May 2010
- Facilitator/Scholar, Maine Humanities Council, "Literature and Medicine" monthly seminar, Frannie Peabody Center, Portland, Maine, 2004; 2005
- Facilitator/Scholar, Maine Humanities Council/National Endowment for the Humanities "Literature and Medicine" monthly seminar, Maine General Medical Center, Augusta, Maine, 2000; 2001; 2002
Arts
- Curator, “Constructions of the Body,” Becker Gallery, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, March 4 – April 26, 2008
- Living with Breast Cancer: Martha Hall's Texts, Images, and Collaborative Productions," opening talk for the exhibition "Holding In, Holding On Artist's Books by Martha A. Hall," Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, Bowdoin College, February 2004
- "Performing Mothers: Paintings by Anne Harris," gallery talk, Bowdoin College, February 2003
- Guest Curator with Alison Ferris, "Jo Spence: The Art of Transgression: Collaborative Projects 1982-1992," Bowdoin College, January 27 - March 1, 1998
- "Jo Spence: Narratives In, Of, and Through Her Body," gallery talk, Bowdoin College, February 1998
 click image to enlarge |
Links
- Academic Spotlight: Talking Bodies: Sociologist Studies Art's Role in Health Movements
- Campus News: Remarks delivered by Susan E. Bell, Professor of Sociology at Opening Convocation August 28, 1996
- Campus News: Major Gift Endows New Social Sciences Professorship at Bowdoin
Photo Credit:
Tattoo, Martha Hall, 1998.
Photograph by Dennis Griggs. Courtesy of Alan Hall.
From the collections of the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives, Bowdoin College