It’s Hard to Be a Sociologist at the NIH and that’s Why You Should

• In Event: 1123 - Practice Symposium- Lightning Round on Tricks of the Trade: Building a Tool-Kit for Sociologists in Practice Settings

Abstract

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the largest public biomedical research institution in the world. Many sociologists are well-aware of the extramural funding role that the NIH provides to advance scientific research and vocation. Less known by sociologists, however, is that the NIH has a competitive, lively, intramural research program that focuses on high-risk high-reward scientific enterprises. It should come as no surprise that the NIH Intramural research program is predominantly staffed with faculty trained and working in the biomedical sciences; yet, there are a few groups that focus on social and behavioral science and sociologists march among their ranks.

As a professional minority, social and behavioral researchers have to work hard at the NIH to have their voices heard over the cacophony of biologists, chemists, and physician-scientists who are skeptical that sociology, psychology, and other social science is relevant to inform biomedical research. Our voices, however, must be heard as we provide the theoretical and empirical insights that are most relevant for human health in the 21st Century. These include, among other things: optimizing behavioral interventions through social theory; revealing and reducing racial, ethnic, gender, and age disparities in health and well-being; and, mastery of measurement over the human experience of medicine. In this presentation, I’ll reflect upon some of the challenges of working as a sociologist at the NIH and discuss why a sociological perspective is critical to a host of issues in the production of science in the intramural research program. I’ll conclude by providing information on how emerging and established sociologists alike can explore employment, collaboration, and training opportunities in the NIH’s Intramural Research Program.

Author

• Christopher Steven Marcum, National Institutes of Health