Mary Nell Trautner, Associate Professor of Sociology and OVPRED/HI Public Humanities Faculty Fellow

Why do some medical problems become legal problems and others do not? This project is based on interviews with 100 parents of children who experienced the same kind of birth injury about their decisions whether or not to pursue legal action against their doctor. Trautner examinex three important influences on parents’ decision making: state-level political and media culture, online social networking sites, and intimate social support networks. Whether parents frame their child’s injury as a legal problem, medical problem, or personal failing can lead to drastically different actions and outcomes for families and children.

Mary Nell studies intersections of social inequality and social justice. Her current research spans a range of topics, including analyses of young people’s ideologies of gender; physical appearance bias; prosecutors as cause lawyers; living wage campaigns; constructions of masculinity; and sexual aggression in bars. The Humanities Institute fellowship is supporting her main line of research on how families cope and make decisions about their child’s birth injuries.

Join us at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center for our eighth year of Faculty Fellows talks! This lecture series brings current UB humanities research out into the community – with complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres. Free and open to the public.