Kate Burrows's picture

Real name: 

Primary Discipline

Primary Discipline: 

  • Social Sciences

Further Specification: 

Sociology

Biography: 

Kate is a sociologist by training and is interested in medical and mental health sociology. She has published in a wide variety of sub-disciplines in sociology, including papers about dating and social meme theory, gender and cancer, mental health, culturally relevant teaching, and the history of medical technology. Her most recent publication appears in the journal "Bipolar Disorders," a medical journal that rarely accepts papers from social scientists. She works for a small qualitative research firm, but also owns a small consulting business that focuses on helping early-career scholars who are either finishing their dissertations and their first publishing experience, or working with newly appointed assistant professors who are engaging in their first projects after their dissertation. She is the editor of a volume about medical technology and society. She also was a contributor to an open-access textbook series for undergraduates, and teaches sociology classes for undergraduates and graduate students ranging from Intro, to advanced courses in Mental Health sociology, gender, disability, popular culture, and classical and mid-century sociological theory. She attended a small liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon for her undergraduate degree, and did all her requirements for her PhD at Rutgers University in New Jersey, but finished her dissertation at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.

Current research areas: 

Bipolar Disorder and the doctor-patient relationship
The phenomenology of psychosis
History of deaf technology
Advanced pharmacology technology

Recent scholarly activity: 

I am currently working on two papers:
1- about Abilify MyCite and digital pills and social control
2- Using directed drawing and co-produced interviews to examine the phenomenology of psychosis
I am also editing a volume about Medical technology and society. This should be published Fall 2023

Recent publications: 

Kutlucinar, Katrin, and Kathryn Burrows. 2022. “Linking Scientific Research to the Bipolar Patient.” Bipolar Disorders. 24: 707-708
Burrows, Kathryn. 2022. “A Not-so Short History of Deaf Technology” London Journal of Humanities and Social Science. 22(15). (invited)
Burrows, Kathryn. 2022. “Who Feels OK? The Social Problem of Mental Illness.” In Social Problems: Inequality and Interdependence. Chemeketa Press.
Burrows, Kathryn. 2022. “Who Gets Well? Social Determinants of Health.” In Social Problems: Inequality and Interdependence. Chemeketa Press.
Hernandez, Awilda, and Kathryn Burrows. 2021. “Implementing Culturally Relevant Teaching in the Classroom.” Open Journal of Leadership 10, no. 4. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojl.2021.104020

Forthcoming research: 

Burrows, Kathryn. “The History and Present of Hearing Aid & Cochlear Implant Advertising” (Accepted-to be published 2023 in Advertising & Society Quarterly).
Burrows, Kathryn. “The Cochlear Implant Decision: How Parents Decide to Implant Their Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants.” (Accepted-to be published in Research in the Sociology of Healthcare).
Burrows, Kathryn. “Medical Technology and the Social: How Medical Technology is Impacting Social relations, Institutions, and Beliefs about what is Normal.” (Accepted- editor of curated volume)
Burrows, Kathryn. “Abilify MyCite and the Social Control of Digital Pills.” (Accepted- to be published in Medical Technology and the Social: How Medical Technology is Impacting Social relations, Institutions, and Beliefs about what is Normal”).
Burrows, Kathryn. “Psych Unit Gangs: An Autoethnography” (Under review at Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry).

Other activities: 

Research Manager & Board member, Research & Conversations About Bipolar Disorder, Inc
National Alliance for Mental Illness, Speakers Bureau

Contact us

National Coalition of Independent Scholars