The Family Focus in Food Allergy

I was inspired to study allergies for my dissertation research because of my own unsatisfying experiences with allergy testing, allergy … More

Postscript to Purity and Danger: New Gluten-Free Labeling Rules Go Into Effect

Since I was a bit out of the loop with teaching for part of the summer, I missed the news … More

As I prepare a presentation for my field’s international scientific conference next month (Society for the Social Studies of Science, … More

For three weeks this summer, I was a teaching assistant for an intensive summer course on the history of medicine. … More

It’s the end of the action-packed Saturday of FARE’s first national food allergy conference in Rosemont, IL. Right now I’m … More

Last week, I wrote about the response of the online food allergy community to an article written by a mom … More

This Friday, I’ll be heading to the Chicago area to attend FARE’s National Food Allergy Conference, June 20-22. I’m looking … More

One of the thorniest issues for people with food allergies seems to be convincing others that their condition is “real” … More

As those of you following me on Twitter may have noticed, I spent much of the past month writing a … More

Last week, I attended a lecture by a physician for ENT (ear, nose, and throat) doctors and medical residents about … More

In a New York Times Health essay from 2008 called “The Tyranny of Diagnosis,” physician Pauline Chen argues, “As comforting … More

This past weekend, I finished a first version of a paper I’ve been thinking about writing for several months. I … More

For a few months out of the year, pollen is my enemy. Birch flowers, a major allergy culprit. My list … More

In the previous post about allergy testing, I talked a little bit about the STS perspective on the function of … More

During some research activities this week, an acquaintance asked me, “What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about allergies so … More

I’m interested in how people learn to avoid foods or, more rarely, learn how to re-introduce them into their diets. … More

One of the crucial skills that people with food allergies (or with kids with food allergies) learn is how to … More

In my research, I’ve sometimes heard doctors use the word “armamentarium” to refer to the full array of treatments they … More

One of the things that I’ve found fascinating in my study of the “culture” of food allergy over the past … More

Unless you were an anthropology major in college, it’s pretty likely that you haven’t heard of the research technique called … More