Mara Buchbinder

About

Mara Buchbinder is a medical anthropologist specializing in the culture of medicine in the United States. Her recent work explores how patients, families, and healthcare providers navigate social and ethical challenges raised by new developments in medical technology, public health policy, and law. She has a particular interest in the role of language in medicine and in the relationships among patients, families, and clinicians in managing illness and healthcare. As a Professor in UNC’s Department of Social Medicine and core faculty in the Center for Bioethics, Mara Buchbinder is strongly committed to interdisciplinary inquiry in the medical humanities, bioethics, and socio-legal studies.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Law
• Engineering ethics
• Family medicine
• Psychotherapist
• Medicine
• Social psychology
• Psychology

Selected publications

• US Obstetrician-Gynecologists' Perceived Impacts of Post–<i>Dobbs v Jackson</i> State Abortion Bans

  JAMA Network Open · 2024 · 89 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Importance: Following the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization decision in June 2022, 17 US states have functionally banned abortion except in narrow circumstances, and physicians found in violation of these laws face felony charges, loss of their medical license, fines, and prison sentences. Patient impacts are being studied closely, but less research has focused on the consequences for obstetrician-gynecologists (OB-GYNs), for whom medically necessary care provision may now carry seriou…

  DOI

• Moral Stress and Moral Distress: Confronting Challenges in Healthcare Systems under Pressure

  The American Journal of Bioethics · 2023 · 64 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  and illustrates how these concepts operate together in healthcare work. Drawing from the philosophy of healthcare, we explain how moral stress results from the normal operations of overstressed systems; unlike moral distress and moral injury, it may not involve a sense of powerlessness concerning patient care. The analysis of moral stress directs attention beyond the individual, to stress-generating systemic factors. We conclude by reflecting on how and why this conceptual clarity matters for im…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Perspectives on Contraception, Pregnancy, and Reproductive Health Counseling from Young Women With Inflammatory Bowel Disease

  Crohn s & Colitis 360 · 2024-12-20 · 7 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Background/Aims Active inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) increases the risk of pregnancy complications and contraceptive side effects, and contraceptive use may impact the clinical course of IBD. Although young people are at elevated risk for unintended pregnancy, those with IBD receive minimal disease-specific contraceptive guidance. We characterized perspectives and preferences on contraception and reproductive health counseling from young cis-women with IBD. Methods We conducted 60-mi…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Organizational Resilience in Healthcare: A Scoping Review

  Journal of Healthcare Management · 2025-05-01 · 6 citations

  reviewOpen access

  GOAL: Healthcare organizations have always faced challenges, yet the past decade has been particularly difficult due to workforce shortages, the COVID-19 pandemic, and economic demands, all of which can impact quality of care. While some healthcare organizations have demonstrated the ability to adapt to such stressors-which has been termed "organizational resilience"-others have not. Most of the research on resilience in healthcare has been on individual clinicians; less is known about how extra…

  PublisherDOI

• “I Feel Like there’s a Politician in the Room”: Provider Perceptions of the Impacts of State Abortion Bans on Physician–Patient Relationships

  Social Work in Public Health · 2025-09-11 · 2 citations

  article

  . These findings indicate that abortion bans may have a substantial impact on patient-physician relationships. Knowledge of this dynamic provides context for social workers related to identifying gaps in patients' education about care options and intervention targets.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Sociocultural Consequences of Legal Innovation: An Anthropological Analysis

  NSF · $150k · 2016–2019

Frequent coauthors

• David L. Rosen

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  147 shared

• Tom Weisner

  University of California, Berkeley

  125 shared

• Rachael Stryker

  125 shared

• Myra Bluebond‐Langner

  University College London

  125 shared

• Abby Hardgrove

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  100 shared

• Jill E. Korbin

  100 shared

• David F. Lancy

  100 shared

• Meghan C. Halley

  100 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Anthropology

  UCLA

  2010

• M.A., Anthropology

  Case Western

  2005

• B.A., Psychological and Brain Sciences

  Dartmouth College

  2002

Awards & honors

• Greenwall Faculty Scholars Award (2015-2018)
• Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly…

Similar researchers at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Krista M. Perreirah-53
• Ronald P. Straussh-44
• Gail E. Hendersonh-39