of Victoria
PhD (University of Toronto), 2019
Health and Medicine, Vaccines, Health Technology, and Science and Technology Studies, Genders and Sexualities, Sexual Health, Social Theory & Feminist Theory, Sociology of Knowledge
Katelin Albert is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology.
She utilizes a diverse range of qualitative and quantitative methods -- from narrative interviews, ethnographic inquiry, to longitudinal diary and survey data -- to explore health decision-making, the diffusion of health responsibility in Canadian society, and how health and sexual health knowledge moves and operates between people and places. Sexual health, sexual experiences, and mental health on campus are growing concerns, and a key area for her future research. Her research program reflects her desire to assess the relationship between health and sexual health knowledge and health experiences.
Her doctoral work looked at responsibility and the persistent tensions accompanying the HPV vaccine, sexual health, and sex-education in contemporary society. She connects the everyday micro-level of parents, teachers, and adolescent girls, with macro-politics of biomedicine, “good parenting,” and progressive sex-ed to understand how vaccine politics and sex-education relate to girls’ development of their own subjectivities. She argues that while parents and teachers work to be responsible to girls’ health and sexual health, their actions may not support adolescents in ways they imagined.
In addition to her work in sociology of health and medicine, she also has an interest in social theory, the philosophy of science, and knowledge production. This work focuses on i) “undone science” and structures that organize and delimit what counts as “good” social science; ii) socio-historical accounts of the history of sociology that misrepresent feminist scholarship and the role of women in sociology, and iii) the highly unequal social relations among knowledge producers. This work focuses on the need to co-consider ontology and epistemology.
Her work has been published internationally in journals such as Sociology of Health and Illness, The American Sociologist, the Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, and the Canadian Journal of Sociology.
Dr. Albert has taught sociology in a variety of academic contexts and continents and greatly enjoys the teaching aspect of the profession. Her pedagogy prioritizes student engagement that can inspire learning and encourage all students, particularly those from diverse backgrounds and social locations.
Interests
Albert, Katelin. (2022). "'All I do is present what is given to us as the facts': Progressive Sex Education and the Reproduction of Inequality in Public School Classrooms." The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality. Available online first, e20210051. DOI: 10.3138/cjhs.2021-0051
Albert, Katelin. Jonah Stuart Brundage, Paige Sweet and Frédéric Vandenberghe. (2020) "Toward a Critical Realist Epistemology?" Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour. 50(3): 357-372.
Albert, Katelin. (2019) "Beyond the Responsiblity Binary: Analysing Maternal Responsiblity in the HPV Vaccination Decision." Sociology of Health and Illness. 41(6): 1088-103.
Albert, Katelin. (2015) "Towards a New Normal: Emergent Elites and Feminist Scholarship." The American Sociologist, 46: 29-39.
Albert, Katelin. (2014) "Erasing the Social From Social Science: The Intellectual Costs of Boundary-Work and the Canadian Institute of Health Research." Canadian Journal of Sociology, 39(3): 393-420.
Albert, Katelin. (2012) "Documenting our Future History: Contemporarily Making Social Science." Timelines, 20, ASA History of Sociology Section's newsletter.
Albert, Katelin. (2012) "On Bringing Theory to Life: Theorizing and the History of Sociology." Interview with Dr. Richard Swedberg (Cornell University), Timelines, 19, ASA History of Sociology Section's newletter.
Albert, Katelin. (2012) "On Privilege and Exception." Interview with Dr. Shamus Khan (Columbia University), Timelines, 19, ASA History of Sociology Section's newsletter.
Derksen, Linda, Katelin Bowes (Albert), Jerry Hinbest, and Pamela Shaw. (2009) "Gabriola Transportation Alternatives Survey: Final Report." Survey undertaken for the Gabriola Ferry Advisory Commitee.
Bowes (Albert), Katelin, Jill Fikowski, Melanie O'Neill. (2007) "Critical Incident Stress Debriefing: Concepts and Controversy." Visions 3(3) 6.