Natalie Aviles
· Assistant Professor of SociologyUniversity of Virginia · Sociology and Anthropology
Active 2015–2026
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About
Natalie B. Aviles is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia. She specializes in Sociological Theory, Science and Technology Studies (STS), Cultural Sociology, Science and Innovation Policy, and Sociology of Health Care. Her research explores how federal laboratories in the U.S. National Cancer Institute have guided scientific and public policy innovation from the post-war period to the present day. Dr. Aviles has authored theoretical work on sociological explanation and empirical work on the political economic and cultural dimensions of cancer innovation published in top Sociology and STS journals. Her first book, An Ungovernable Foe: Science and Policy Innovation in the U.S. National Cancer Institute (2024), is published by Columbia University Press. She teaches undergraduate courses on the sociology of science and medicine and is a core member of the Sociology Department’s Health and Society concentration. Additionally, she teaches graduate-level courses in Sociology of Science, Contemporary Theory, and Research Design & Methods, supervising graduate students interested in theory, STS, political sociology, and historical methods. Dr. Aviles is also Affiliate Faculty in the Health, Ethics, and Society Program and serves on the Advisory Board of the Human Biology Distinguished Major Program. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology & Science Studies from the University of California, San Diego in 2016, and prior to her current position, she was a…
Research topics
- Computer Science
- Sociology
- Epistemology
- Political Science
- Social Science
- Intensive care medicine
- Philosophy
- Medicine
- Internal medicine
- Oncology
Selected publications
BMC Cancer · 2023 · 6 citations
BACKGROUND: The goal of therapy for many patients with advanced stage malignancies, including those with metastatic gastric and esophageal cancers, is to extend overall survival while also maintaining quality of life. After weighing the risks and benefits of treatment with palliative chemotherapy (PC) with non-curative intent, many patients decide to pursue treatment. It is known that a subset of patients who are treated with PC experience significant side effects without clinically significant…
Columbia University Press eBooks · 2024-01-29 · 3 citations
book1st authorCorrespondingNatalie B. Aviles examines seventy years of federally funded scientific breakthroughs in the laboratories of the U.S. National Cancer Institute to shed new light on how bureaucratic organizations nurture innovation.
Environing Innovation: Toward an Ecological Pragmatism of Scientific Practice
Sociological Perspectives · 2023 · 3 citations
1st authorCorrespondingStudies of scientific innovation that theorize the complex social and material influences on scientific inquiry and innovation can benefit from explicit theoretical attention to meso-level practices embedded in formal organizations. Combining insights separately developed by pragmatist perspectives in sociology and Science and Technology Studies (STS), I introduce an ecological pragmatist approach to scientific practice that helps account for the meso-level environments in which scientists innov…
Social Science & Medicine · 2024-03-22 · 2 citations
article1st authorCorrespondingRatio via Machina: Three Standards of Mechanistic Explanation in Sociology
Springer eBooks · 2023 · 1 citations
1st authorCorresponding
Frequent coauthors
- 2 shared
Isaac Ariail Reed
- 1 shared
Xiaoyuan Ma
Army Medical University
- 1 shared
Harsh Anand
- 1 shared
Paul R. Kunk
University of Virginia
- 1 shared
Robin Wolfe Scheffler
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 1 shared
Eric Pierce
University of Virginia
- 1 shared
Negin Alemazkoor
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