Research Interests

Queer and Feminist Science & Technology Studies HIV/AIDS LGBTQ studies Sociology of risk and quantification Gender & Queer Theories

Biography

Dr. Aaron Norton is a core faculty member in the PhD Program in Human Sexuality at CIIS. Aaron received his PhD in social psychology from UC Davis (2014), where he also spent two years as the Graduate Fellow for the Center for Science and Innovation Studies and the Program in Science and Technology Studies (2012-2014). After graduating, he spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow with the Sexualities Project at Northwestern (SPAN), and another year and a half as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Sociology and Gender & Sexuality Studies, during which time he taught courses such as Sexuality, Biomedicine, & HIV/AIDS; Sexuality, Social Science & LGBT Rights; Sexuality & Society; Research Methods in Gender & Sexuality Studies; and Health, Biomedicine, Culture, & Society.

Before entering graduate school, Aaron worked in a genetics lab at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, and spent two years in the clinical research division of the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, DC, where he served as a regulatory affairs specialist and liaison between the clinic and the community based Institutional Review Board responsible for ensuring new HIV clinical trials conducted at the clinic met current ethical guidelines and federal regulations.

Dr. Aaron Norton is a core faculty member in the PhD Program in Human Sexuality at CIIS. Before entering graduate school, Aaron worked in a genetics lab at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, and spent two years in the clinical research division of the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, DC, where he worked on ensuring that new HIV clinical trials clinic met relevant ethical guidelines and federal regulations.

Aaron received his PhD in social psychology from UC Davis, where he also spent two years as the Graduate Fellow for the Center for Science and Innovation Studies and the Program in Science and Technology Studies. After graduating, he spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow with the Sexualities Project at Northwestern (SPAN), and another year and a half as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Sociology and Gender & Sexuality Studies. Aaron's main areas of interest include gender and sexuality studies, science & technology studies, social studies of risk and quantification, and the biopolitics of HIV-prevention. For example, his dissertation traced the circulation of statistical claims relating male circumcision and HIV-risk to consider the science and ethics of male circumcision's emergence as an HIV-risk category and prevention strategy. In addition, Aaron's past research has drawn on both quantitative and qualitative approaches to the study of gender and sexuality, and includes publications on such topics as attitudes toward transgender people; human chimerism, kinship, and trans-subjectivity.

Education

PhD in Psychology, UC Davis (2014)

MA in Psychology, UC Davis (2007)

BA in Psychology with a concentration in French, St. Mary's College of Maryland (2001)

Awards & Distinctions

Sexualities Project at Northwestern Postdoctoral Fellowship (2014-16) Finalist, University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship (2013) Psychology Department Dissertation Fellowship, UC Davis (2012) Graduate Student Fellowship, Sociology Department, UC San Diego (2007-2008) Rik and Florence Henrikson Fellowship, Science Studies, UC San Diego (2007-2008) Post-Baccalaureate Intramural Research Training Fellowship, NIH (2001-2002) Phi Beta Kappa, St. Mary’s College of Maryland (2000)

Courses

Introduction to Human Sexuality; Gender & Queer Theory; Core Concept Comprehensive Exam; Literature Review Comprehensive Exam

Publications

Norton, A.T. (2017). Foreskin and the molecular politics of risk. Social Studies of Science, 47(5), 655-680. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312717707360

Norton, A.T. (2013). Surveying risk subjects: Public health surveys as instruments of biomedicalization. BioSocieties, 8, 265-288. https://doi.org/10.1057/biosoc.2013.20 Norton, A.T., & Herek, G.M. (2013). Heterosexuals' attitudes toward transgender people: Findings from a national probability sample of U.S. adults. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 68, 738-753. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-0110-6 Herek, G.M., Norton, A.T., Allen, T.J., & Sims, C.L. (2010). Demographic, psychological, and social characteristics of self-identified lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults in a U.S. probability sample. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 7, 176-200. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-010-0017-y Norton, A.T. & Zehner, O. (2008). Which half is mommy?: Tetragametic chimerism and trans-subjectivity. Women Studies Quarterly, 36(3/4), 106-125. https://doi.org/10.1353/wsq.0.0115 Yamashita, T., Hashiramoto, A., Haluzik, M., Mizukami, H., Beck, S., Norton, A.T., ... , & Proia, R.L. (2003). Enhanced insulin sensitivity in mice lacking ganglioside GM3. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(6), 3445-3449. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0635898100