Professor
Dr. Laury Oaks
Title & Affiliation
Professor, Department of Feminine Studies
Committee Member, Health Justice & Community Initiative
Specialization
- Sexual and reproductive politics
- Health advocacy movements
- Feminist analysis of public health, medicine, and science
- Qualitative research methods
Bio:
Laury Oaks is a Professor in the Department of Feminist Studies and in the Health Justice Initiative at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Professor Oaks holds a Joint Ph.D. in Anthropology and Public Health, from Johns Hopkins University, and has a longstanding interest in feminist health justice approaches to reproductive and sexual health. Her publications highlight the complexities of lived sexual and reproductive health experiences that are not systematically reflected in public policies.
Recent books include The Salley Gardens, Women, Sex, and Motherhood in Ireland, with Jo Murphy-Lawless, and Giving Up Baby: Safe Haven Laws, Motherhood, and Reproductive Justice. Professor Oaks serves on the Advisory Board of the UC Global Health Institute’s Center for Gender and Health Justice.
Education
- Ph.D., 1998, Johns Hopkins University (Anthropology & Population Dynamics)
- M.A., 1994, Johns Hopkins University (Anthropology)
- B.A., 1988, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Anthropology and Women’s Studies)
- Certificate in Women’s Studies, 1988, Women’s Studies Program in Europe, administered through Antioch University, Ohio
Selected Publications / Books
- The Salley Gardens: Women, Sex, and Motherhood in Ireland, with Jo Murphy-Lawless, Peter Lang Publishers, Reimagining Ireland series, 2022
- Giving Up Baby: Safe Haven Laws, Motherhood, and Reproductive Justice, NYU Press, 2015
- Risk, Culture, and Health Inequality: Shifting Perceptions of Danger and Blame, eds. Barbara Herr Harthorn and Laury Oaks, Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003
- Smoking and Pregnancy: The Politics of Fetal Protection, New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 2001