Natalie B Aviles
Biographic Data
| ID | 215085 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Natalie B Aviles |
| GIVEN NAMES | Natalie B |
| FAMILY NAME | Aviles |
| SIGNATURE | AVILES N B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3754-1073 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 7 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Excavating political and moral agency from the foundations of actor–network theory
This paper explores the understudied relationship between political and moral agency in actor-network theory (ANT). ANT developed a post-humanist theory of political agency by reinterpreting contract theory through a post-structuralist semiotic lens, but marginalized concerns over moral agency as humanistic impositions. However, ANT scholars ultimately struggled to imagine a future for democratic politics. Pragmatist philosophy offers solutions t…
Pragmatism and pandemic policymaking
Environing Innovation
Studies 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…
State planning, cancer vaccine infrastructure, and the origins of the oncogene theory
In this article, we analyze the National Cancer Institute's Virus Cancer Programs (1964-1978). The NCI's organizational mandate established program goals that iteratively braided together both scientific research and public health outcomes. The distinctive environment of the NCI as a federal research institute made scientific programs accountable to evaluations of both experimental and administrative appropriateness. To this end, NCI scientist-ad…
Situated Practice and the Emergence of Ethical Research
This article explores the role scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a US federal science agency, played in researching and testing vaccines against the human papillomavirus (HPV). Drawing upon archival sources and oral history interview data, I challenge narratives that attribute the design of HPV vaccines to profit motive. Instead, I show that the researchers who developed the technology attempted to construct ethical approaches to…
Ratio via Machina
Recently, sociologists have expended much effort in attempts to define social mechanisms. We intervene in these debates by proposing that sociologists in fact have a choice to make between three standards of what constitutes a good mechanistic explanation: substantial, formal, and metaphorical mechanistic explanation. All three standards are active in the field, and we suggest that a more complete theory of mechanistic explanation in sociology mu…
The little death
Approaches to the organization and conduct of cancer research changed dramatically throughout the 20th century. Despite marked differences between the epidemiological approaches of the first half of the century and molecular techniques that gained dominance in the 1980s, prominent 20th-century researchers investigating the link between sexual activity and anogenital cancers continuously invoked the same 1842 treatise by Italian surgeon Domenico R…
Ratio via Machina
Recently, sociologists have expended much effort in attempts to define social mechanisms. We intervene in these debates by proposing that sociologists in fact have a choice to make between three standards of what constitutes a good mechanistic explanation: substantial, formal, and metaphorical mechanistic explanation. All three standards are active in the field, and we suggest that a more complete theory of mechanistic explanation in sociology mu…
Situated Practice and the Emergence of Ethical Research
This article explores the role scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a US federal science agency, played in researching and testing vaccines against the human papillomavirus (HPV). Drawing upon archival sources and oral history interview data, I challenge narratives that attribute the design of HPV vaccines to profit motive. Instead, I show that the researchers who developed the technology attempted to construct ethical approaches to…
The little death
Approaches to the organization and conduct of cancer research changed dramatically throughout the 20th century. Despite marked differences between the epidemiological approaches of the first half of the century and molecular techniques that gained dominance in the 1980s, prominent 20th-century researchers investigating the link between sexual activity and anogenital cancers continuously invoked the same 1842 treatise by Italian surgeon Domenico R…
Pragmatism and pandemic policymaking
State planning, cancer vaccine infrastructure, and the origins of the oncogene theory
In this article, we analyze the National Cancer Institute's Virus Cancer Programs (1964-1978). The NCI's organizational mandate established program goals that iteratively braided together both scientific research and public health outcomes. The distinctive environment of the NCI as a federal research institute made scientific programs accountable to evaluations of both experimental and administrative appropriateness. To this end, NCI scientist-ad…
The little death
Approaches to the organization and conduct of cancer research changed dramatically throughout the 20th century. Despite marked differences between the epidemiological approaches of the first half of the century and molecular techniques that gained dominance in the 1980s, prominent 20th-century researchers investigating the link between sexual activity and anogenital cancers continuously invoked the same 1842 treatise by Italian surgeon Domenico R…
Ratio via Machina
Recently, sociologists have expended much effort in attempts to define social mechanisms. We intervene in these debates by proposing that sociologists in fact have a choice to make between three standards of what constitutes a good mechanistic explanation: substantial, formal, and metaphorical mechanistic explanation. All three standards are active in the field, and we suggest that a more complete theory of mechanistic explanation in sociology mu…
Situated Practice and the Emergence of Ethical Research
This article explores the role scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a US federal science agency, played in researching and testing vaccines against the human papillomavirus (HPV). Drawing upon archival sources and oral history interview data, I challenge narratives that attribute the design of HPV vaccines to profit motive. Instead, I show that the researchers who developed the technology attempted to construct ethical approaches to…
State planning, cancer vaccine infrastructure, and the origins of the oncogene theory
In this article, we analyze the National Cancer Institute's Virus Cancer Programs (1964-1978). The NCI's organizational mandate established program goals that iteratively braided together both scientific research and public health outcomes. The distinctive environment of the NCI as a federal research institute made scientific programs accountable to evaluations of both experimental and administrative appropriateness. To this end, NCI scientist-ad…
Environing Innovation
Studies 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…
Pragmatism and pandemic policymaking
Excavating political and moral agency from the foundations of actor–network theory
This paper explores the understudied relationship between political and moral agency in actor-network theory (ANT). ANT developed a post-humanist theory of political agency by reinterpreting contract theory through a post-structuralist semiotic lens, but marginalized concerns over moral agency as humanistic impositions. However, ANT scholars ultimately struggled to imagine a future for democratic politics. Pragmatist philosophy offers solutions t…
Sociology (5 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Medicine (3 works) · Philosophy (3 works) · Pragmatism (3 works) · Computer Science (2 works)