Miranda Waggoner is an associate professor of sociology at Rice University. Her research examines how social structure and culture shape biomedical knowledge production, medical care, and public health practice, with a particular focus on topics related to gender, reproduction, and inequality. She is author of the award-winning book The Zero Trimester (University of California Press), and her current book project examines the changing cultural, ethical, and regulatory context surrounding biomedical research in pregnancy.

Originally from Texas, Waggoner earned her Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy from Brandeis University in 2011. She then held a postdoctoral fellowship in the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. Before joining the faculty at Rice, Waggoner earned tenure at Florida State University, where she received a University Teaching Award. Professor Waggoner is an alumna of the Greenwall Foundation’s Faculty Scholars Program in Bioethics (2019–2022), and she is the recipient of a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation.

At Rice, Waggoner is also affiliated with the Medical Humanities Program, the Science and Technology Studies Program, the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, and the Baker Institute for Public Policy.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS:

Lyerly, Anne Drapkin and Miranda R. Waggoner. 2024. “Reproductive Intrusions: Evidence and Ethics.” American Journal of Bioethics 24(2): 31–33.

Nelson, Ryan H., Bryanna Moore, Holly Fernandez Lynch, Miranda R. Waggoner, and Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby. 2023. “Bioethics and the Moral Authority of Experience.” American Journal of Bioethics 23(1): 12–24.

Waggoner, Miranda R. and Anne Drapkin Lyerly. 2022. “Clinical Trials in Pregnancy and the ‘Shadows of Thalidomide’: Revisiting the Legacy of Frances Kelsey.” Contemporary Clinical Trials 119: 106806. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2022.106806

Waggoner, Miranda R. and Anne Drapkin Lyerly. 2022. “Another Consequence of Overturning Roe: Imperiling Progress on Clinical Research in Pregnancy.” American Journal of Bioethics 22(8): 59–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2022.2088894

DeSoucey, Michaela and Miranda R. Waggoner. 2022. “Another Person’s Peril: Peanut Allergy, Risk Perceptions, and Responsible Sociality.” American Sociological Review 87(1): 50–79. https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224211067773

• Winner, Outstanding Published Article Award, Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity Section of the American Sociological Association (2023)
• Honorable Mention, Eliot Freidson Outstanding Publication Award, Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association (2023)

Rondini, Ashley C., Rachel H. Kowalsky, and Miranda R. Waggoner. 2021. “Addressing Meso-Level Mechanisms of Racism in Medicine.” American Journal of Bioethics 21(2): 66–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2020.1861372

Armstrong, Elizabeth Mitchell, Susan Markens, and Miranda R. Waggoner (Editors). 2020. Advances in Medical Sociology, Volume 20: Reproduction, Health, and Medicine. Emerald.

Conrad, Peter and Miranda R. Waggoner. 2017. “Anticipatory Medicalization: Predisposition, Prediction, and the Expansion of Medicalized Conditions.” Pp. 95–103 in Medical Ethics, Prediction, and Prognosis: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, edited by Mariacarla Gadebusch-Bondio, Francesco Spöring, and John-Stewart Gordon. Routledge.

Waggoner, Miranda R. 2017. The Zero Trimester: Pre-Pregnancy Care and the Politics of Reproductive Risk. University of California Press.

• Winner, Robert K. Merton Book Award, Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association (2019)
• Winner, Adele E. Clarke Book Award, ReproNetwork (2019)
• Finalist, C. Wright Mills Award, Society for the Study of Social Problems (2017)