Susan Starr Sered (born 1955) is Professor of Sociology at Suffolk University and Senior Researcher at
Suffolk University
Suffolk University is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. With 7,560 students (includes all campuses, 7,379 at the Boston location alone), it is the eighth-largest university in metropolitan Boston. It was founded as a l ...
's Center for Women's Health and
Human Rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
. Previously, she was the director of the "Religion, Health and Healing Initiative" at the
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
Center for the Study of World Religions, and a
Professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...
of
Sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
and
Anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
at
Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic i ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. Her interests include both research and advocacy/activism.
Professor Sered works closely with the Massachusetts Women's Justice Network and other organizations advocating for women's human rights and against mass incarceration.
Published works
Professor Sered is the author of seven books, nearly one hundred scholarly articles, and numerous op-eds and shorter articles focusing on
women's health
Women's health differs from that of men in many unique ways. Women's health is an example of population health, where health is defined by the World Health Organization as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not mer ...
,
mass incarceration
Incarceration in the United States is a primary form of punishment and rehabilitation for the commission of felony and other offenses. The United States has the largest prison population in the world, and the highest per-capita incarceratio ...
, and a variety of religious issues.
Professor Sered's work ''Women of the Sacred Groves'' was severely criticized by Okinawan Studies related scholars in "Declaration of Concern" published in issue 54 of the ''Ryukyuanist''. Professor Sered later submitte "A Response to Critics" in issue 55 of the ''Ryukyuanist''.
Books
*''Can’t Catch a Break: Gender, Jail, Drugs, and the Limits of Personal Responsibility''. University of California Press (with Maureen Norton-Hawk) (2014).
*''Uninsured in America: Life and Death in the Land of Opportunity'' (with Rushika Fernandopulle) (2005)
*''Women As Ritual Experts: The Religious Lives of Elderly Jewish Women in Jerusalem'', New York: Oxford University Press, (1992)
*''Priestess, Mother, Sacred Sister: Religions Dominated by Women'', New York: Oxford University Press, (1994)
*''Women of the Sacred Groves: Divine Priestesses of Okinawa'', New York: Oxford University Press, (1999)
*''What Makes Women Sick: Maternity, Modesty, and Militarism in Israeli Society'', Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press : University Press of New England, (2000)
*''Religious healing in Boston : first findings'', Ed. Susan Sered and Linda Barnes Cambridge, MA: Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University, The Divinity School, (2001)
*''Religious healing in Boston : reports from the field'', Ed. Susan Sered Cambridge, MA: Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University, The Divinity School, (2002)
*''Religious healing in Boston : body, spirit, community'', Ed. Susan Sered Cambridge, MA: Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University, The Divinity School, (2004)
*''Religion and healing in America'', Ed. Susan Sered and Linda L. Barnes Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, (2005)
Articles
*2013 (with Maureen Norton-Hawk) “Criminalized Women and the Healthcare System: The Case for Continuity of Services,” ''
Journal of Correctional Health Care
The ''Journal of Correctional Health Care'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed healthcare journal that publishes papers four times a year in the field of health care in correctional settings. The editor-in-chief is John R. Miles. It was established 1 ...
'' 19(3): 164-177.
*2012 (with Maureen Norton-Hawk) “Criminalized Women and Twelve Step Programs: Addressing Violations of the Law with a Spiritual Cure,” ''Implicit Religion'' 15(1): 37-60.
*2011 (with Maureen Norton-Hawk) “Whose Higher Power: Criminalized Women Confront the Twelve Steps,” ''
Feminist Criminology
The feminist school of criminology is a school of criminology developed in the late 1960s and into the 1970s as a reaction to the general disregard and discrimination of women in the traditional study of crime. It is the view of the feminist sch ...
'' 6 (4): 308-322.
*2011 (with Marilyn Delle Donne Proulx) “Lessons for Women's Health from the Massachusetts Reform: Affordability, Transitions and Choice,” ''
Women’s Health Issues
''Women's Health Issues'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering women's health care and policy. It is the official journal of the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health and published on their behalf by Elsevier. The editor-in-chief is ...
'' 21(1): 1-5.
*2008 (with Amy Agigian) “Holistic Sickening: Breast Cancer and the Discursive Worlds of Complementary and Alternative Practitioners,” ''
Sociology of Health and Illness
The sociology of health and illness, sociology of health and wellness, or health sociology examines the interaction between society and health. As a field of study it is interested in all aspects of life, including contemporary as well as histor ...
'' 30(4): 616-631.
*2005 ''Threadbare: Holes in America’s Health Care Safety Net'' (with Catherine Hoffman), Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Washington DC.
*2002 “Healing and Religion: A Jewish Perspective,” ''Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine'', special issue “Spirituality, Religious Wisdom, and Care of the Patient.”
*1999 "'You are a Number, Not a Human Being': Israeli Breast Cancer Patients' Experiences with the Medical Establishment," ''
Medical Anthropology Quarterly
''Medical Anthropology Quarterly'' (MAQ) is an international peer-reviewed academic journal published for the Society for Medical Anthropology, a section of the American Anthropological Association, by Wiley-Blackwell. It publishes research and th ...
'' 13(3): 223-252.
*1999 "Talking about Mikveh Parties, or The Discourse of Status, Hierarchy and Social Control" in Rahel Wasserfall, ed. ''Women and Water: Niddah and Mikveh in Jewish Cultures'', UPNE.
*1995 "Rachel's Tomb: The Development of a Cult," Jewish Studies Quarterly 2(2): pp. 103–148.
*1988 "Food and Holiness: Cooking as a Sacred Act Among Middle-Eastern Jewish Women," ''
Anthropological Quarterly
Anthropological Quarterly is a widely read peer-reviewed journal covering topics in social and cultural anthropology. It is housed at the George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research.
''Anthropological Quarterly'' was founded ...