NCID-2127
Shobita Parthasarathy
Associate Professor of Public Policy and Women's Studies
University of Michigan
Education/Degree:
1 Science and Technology Studies (Cornell University)
About
Shobita Parthasarathy is an associate professor of public policy and women's studies, and director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the governance of emerging science and technology in comparative perspective. She is interested in how technological innovation, and innovation systems, can better achieve public interest and social justice goals, as well as in the politics of knowledge and expertise in science and technology policy. She has done research in the United States and Europe, and her current research focuses on India. She is the author of numerous articles and two books: Patent Politics: Life Forms, Markets, and the Public Interest in the United States and Europe (University of Chicago Press, 2017) and Building Genetic Medicine: Breast Cancer, Technology, and the Comparative Politics of Health Care (MIT Press, 2007). Findings from Building Genetic Medicine influenced the 2013 US Supreme Court decision prohibiting patents on isolated human genes. She has advised the US HHS Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health, and Society, the Austrian Genome Research Program, the European Patent Office, and the US Government Accountability Office, among other science and technology policymaking institutions. She holds a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Chicago and masters and PhD degrees in science and technology studies from Cornell University. To support her research, she has received grants and fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the American Council of Learned Societies, the UK Wellcome Trust, the German Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, the American Bar Foundation, and the US National Science Foundation.
Current Work
Dr. Parthasarathy's current research examines the politics of pro-poor technology, with a focus in India. Technological innovation seems to have enormous potential to improve the lives of the poor, from improving sanitation to increasing access to education. But, these interventions often have limited user interest and uptake. Dr. Parthasarathy asks, how should we understand these failures, and the persistent investments in technologies that seem to have failed long ago? Can we do a better job of leveraging technology for the poor? Dr. Parthasarathy hypothesizes that the political machineries that guide the design, implementation, and consequences of pro-poor technologies, from their organizational forms to their approaches to knowledge and expertise, influence these technological choices. This has, in turn, significant consequences for the poor. To analyze this, she engages qualitative comparative research. First, she compares the political machineries of different types of pro-poor technology initiatives, at the international level as well as the national and local levels in India. Second, she compares how political machineries shape the development and implementation of four common pro-poor technologies — clean cookstoves, toilets, menstrual pads, and watershed management for agriculture — and their implications for the poor. This study offers a fresh perspective on poverty policy by focusing on the politics of science and technology. Understanding these politics is a key step towards transparency in policymaking, and towards ensuring that technologies are chosen and implemented in ways that poor citizens want and need.