Affiliate Faculty Spotlight

Shobita Parthasarathy

Professor of Public Policy; Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy program; Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies (by courtesy)

Featured Project

NATURE PODCAST - 03 November 2020 - ‘Stick to the science’: when science gets political A three-part podcast series explores the intimate relationship between politics and science. Listen as Shobita discusses this topic.

My Michigan Experience

I came to the University of Michigan 12 years ago and ……

Work with MIDAS

I joined MIDAS as an affiliate faculty member 4 years ago. In that time, MIDAS has supported my work with 2 grants and I believe the experience has enhanced my capabilities as a researcher.

Alma mater(s)

I studied at the University of Somewhere for my BS before moving on to graduate school in Cal State  ……

Research Interests

She is interested in how to develop innovation, and innovation policy, to better achieve public interest and social justice goals. Much of her work has focused on the governance of emerging science and technology, particularly those that have uncertain environmental, social, ethical, political, and health implications.

Interesting facts about you

She is the author of multiple articles and two books: Building Genetic Medicine: Breast Cancer, Technology, and the Comparative Politics of Health Care (MIT Press 2007; paperback 2012), which influenced the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court case challenging the patentability of human genes; and Patent Politics: Life Forms, Markets, and the Public Interest in the United States and Europe (University of Chicago Press, 2017) which won the Robert K. Merton Prize from the American Sociological Association.

Most interesting project you have worked on

She is the author of multiple articles and two books: Building Genetic Medicine: Breast Cancer, Technology, and the Comparative Politics of Health Care (MIT Press 2007; paperback 2012), which influenced the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court case challenging the patentability of human genes; and Patent Politics: Life Forms, Markets, and the Public Interest in the United States and Europe (University of Chicago Press, 2017) which won the Robert K. Merton Prize from the American Sociological Association.

"People don't care about how much we know as researchers until they know how much we care about the problems they face in their everyday lives.

Shobita ParthasarathyMIDAS Affilaite Faculty

Q & A with Shobita Parthasarathy

 

What inspired you to become a researcher?

  • Originally, it was the opportunity to become a part of one of the top education programs in the United States. I had always heard about the BGSU programs, and when the door opened for me to work here, it was a dream come true.  Once I arrived, it quickly became all about coming alongside to support the amazing people who work at BGSU and helping them pursue their passions.

What drove your decision to embrace data science as a part of the research?

  • I feel it has been a really steep learning curve, but the people here – from the office staff to veteran faculty members to the other directors and all the deans – have opened their arms and hearts to myself and my family and have helped us make the transition to Ohio as seamless as possible.

What traits or characteristics are critical to becoming a skilled researcher?

  • It is very important for me to connect with each individual and every program in the School of Teaching and Learning so as to better serve their needs and, together, reach a shared vision. With that as a foundation, I want every student who graduates from the School of Teaching and Learning – undergrad and graduated programs alike –  to be ready for the realities of their future classrooms.

What advice would you offer to aspiring researchers as they begin their careers?

  • It is very important for me to connect with each individual and every program in the School of Teaching and Learning so as to better serve their needs and, together, reach a shared vision. With that as a foundation, I want every student who graduates from the School of Teaching and Learning – undergrad and graduated programs alike –  to be ready for the realities of their future classrooms.

What is your favorite part about being a researcher?

  • Getting to know people! It was during my years as an educator where I truly learned the content and teaching strategies that I have been able to share and pass on to my teacher candidates at Alma College, Pacific University and now Bowling Green State University.  I loved both my public school experiences, and it was there, in the “teaching trenches,” I knew I wanted to make a greater impact by teaching and preparing teacher candidates in higher education.

What makes data science such a valuable part of your work?

  • My advice is to teach each child that walks into their classroom as if they were your own. I would advise them to look at every child as an individual, as a person and as a student.

What was the best piece of advice you received as a student and who offered it to you?

  • A quote by Haim Ginott given to me as a graduate student: ‘I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.’

What is your greatest professional achievement so far?

  • The realization that I am in a profession that allows me to step into someone’s life – for a brief moment in time – and impact their career and, in turn, the future of the students they will one day teach.

Where do you see your research going in the future?

  • It is very important for me to connect with each individual and every program in the School of Teaching and Learning so as to better serve their needs and, together, reach a shared vision. With that as a foundation, I want every student who graduates from the School of Teaching and Learning – undergrad and graduated programs alike –  to be ready for the realities of their future classrooms.

What do you want your legacy to be?

  • It is very important for me to connect with each individual and every program in the School of Teaching and Learning so as to better serve their needs and, together, reach a shared vision. With that as a foundation, I want every student who graduates from the School of Teaching and Learning – undergrad and graduated programs alike –  to be ready for the realities of their future classrooms.

Recent Publications

 

  • Zixuan Wang, Margarita Maria Rodriguez Morales, Kseniya Husak, Molly Kleinman, and Shobita ParthasarathyIn Communities we Trust: Institutional Failures and Sustained Solutions for Vaccine HesitancyTechnology Assessment Project, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, University of Michigan (2021).
  • Contributor: “Stick to the Science! When Science Gets Political.” Nature. 3-part podcast series. 2020.
  • Shobita Parthasarathy. “More Testing alone will not get us out of this Pandemic.” Nature. 585: 8 (2020). 
  • Claire Galligan, Hannah Rosenfeld, Molly Kleinman, and Shobita ParthasarathyCameras in the Classroom: Facial Recognition Technology in SchoolsTechnology Assessment Project, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, University of Michigan (2020).
  • Shobita Parthasarathy (2020). “Innovation Policy, Structural Inequality, and COVID-19.” Democratic Theory. 7(2): 104-109.
  • Shobita Parthasarathy (2020). “Approaching Intellectual Property Scholarship Differently: A Qualitative Research Review and Agenda.” Science and Public Policy. Online first: https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scaa010.
  • Shobita Parthasarathy (2020). “Seeing Hoodia, seeing the world.” Biosocieties, 15: 148-152.
  • Shobita Parthasarathy. “Use Patents to Regulate Gene Editing.” Nature. October 25, 2018.
  • Shobita Parthasarathy (2017). “Grassroots Innovation Systems for a Post-Carbon World: Promoting Economic Democracy, Environmental Sustainability, and the Public Interest.” Brooklyn Law Review, 82(2): 761-787.
  • Shobita ParthasarathyPatent Politics: Life Forms, Markets, and the Public Interest in the United States and Europe (University of Chicago Press). (hardcover: 2017; paperback: 2020).
  • Shobita Parthasarathy (2016). “Lessons for CRISPR from the Missed Opportunities of Asilomar.” Ethics in Biology, Engineering, and Medicine. 6 (3-4): 305-312.
  • Shobita Parthasarathy (2015). “Co-Producing Knowledge and Political Legitimacy: Comparing the Life Form Patent Controversies in Europe and the United States.” In Stephen Hilgartner, Clark Miller, and Rob Hagendijk, eds., Science and Democracy: Emerging Trends. Routledge.
  • Shobita Parthasarathy (2014). “Producing the Consumer of Genetic Testing for Breast Cancer: The Double-Edged Sword of Empowerment.” In Kelly Moore and Daniel Kleinman, eds. Handbook of Science, Technology, and Society. Routledge.
  • Shobita Parthasarathy (2014). “Observing the Patent System in Social and Political Perspective: A Case Study of Europe” (with Alexis Walker) In Margo Bagley and Ruth Okediji, eds., Global Perspectives on Patent Law, New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
  • Shobita Parthasarathy (2011). “Whose Knowledge? Whose Values? The Comparative Politics of Patenting Life Forms in the United States and Europe.” Policy Sciences (Vol 44, No. 3, p. 267-288).
  • Shobita Parthasarathy (2010). “Breaking the Expertise Barrier: Understanding Activist Challenges to Science and Technology Policy Domains.” Science and Public Policy. Vol. 37, No. 5, pp. 355-367.
  • Shobita Parthasarathy (2010). “The Implications of Direct to Consumer Genetic Testing for the Public’s Health: Taking Sociotechnical Architectures Seriously.” Genetics in Medicine. Vol. 12, No. 9.
  • Shobita Parthasarathy (2007). Building Genetic Medicine: Breast Cancer, Technology, and the Comparative Politics of Health Care. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.