Anna Kirkland
Teacher and Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Political Science, University of Michigan
The vaccine court is a little unique court in the Court of Federal Claims that handles questionable claims that a vaccine has actually damaged somebody. In this court, legal representatives, activists, doctors, judges, and scientists come together, sometimes arguing bitterly, attempting to figure out whether a vaccine truly triggered an individual’s medical problem. In this talk, Ms. Kirkland provides findings from her new book on the vaccine court. She concentrates on the core question of her research, particularly, how do we pertain to recognize vaccine injuries? She argues that our political and legal reaction to vaccine injury declares demonstrate how legal organizations can manage specialized scientific matters.
Speaker Bio:
Anna Kirkland, J.D., Ph.D., is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Political Science, and Associate Director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Fat Rights: Dilemmas of Difference and Personhood (New York University Press, 2008) and co-editor with Jonathan Metzl of Against Health: How Health Became the New Morality (New York University Press, 2010). In her new book, Vaccine Court: The Law and Politics of Injury (New York University Press, 2016), Kirkland explores how activists and government stars come to know, identify, and make up for vaccine injuries, and what recent arguments over vaccine security reveal about democratic engagement with volatile clinical concerns in the contemporary United States. Current articles consist of also “Power and Persuasion in the Vaccine Debates: An Analysis of Political Efforts and Outcomes in the States, 1998-2012,” “Credibility Battles in the Autism Litigation,” “The Legitimacy of Vaccine Critics: What’s Left after Autism?,” and “The Environmental Account of Obesity: A Case for Feminist Skepticism.” Kirkland recently got a National Science Foundation grant to study the organizational handling of rights claims against sex discrimination in healthcare settings under the Affordable Care Act.
Recorded May 2, 2017
The Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences
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The vaccine court is a little unique court in the Court of Federal Claims that deals with questionable claims that a vaccine has actually damaged someone. In her new book, Vaccine Court: The Law and Politics of Injury (New York University Press, 2016), Kirkland checks out how activists and federal government actors come to understand, determine, and compensate for vaccine injuries, and what current disputes over vaccine security reveal about democratic engagement with unpredictable scientific questions in the modern United States. Recent short articles consist of likewise “Power and Persuasion in the Vaccine Debates: An Analysis of Political Efforts and Outcomes in the States, 1998-2012,” “Credibility Battles in the Autism Litigation,” “The Legitimacy of Vaccine Critics: What’s Left after Autism?
