Skip to main content
Department ofPublic Health

Sonja Mackenzie

Sonja Mackenzie

Associate Professor and Department Chair

In 2021, Sonja Mackenzie is conducting sabbatical research as Affiliate Faculty with the Reproductive Sociology Research Group (ReproSoc) and Department of Sociology at Cambridge University. Her scholarship lies at the intersections of public health and sociological inquiry to analyze and intervene in social and structural inequities in health among racial/ethnic and sexual and gender minorities. Her current projects include analyses of patterns in transnational reproductive technologies and LGBTQ kinship, and health social movements from HIV to Covid-19. Her research portfolio includes a five-year K01 award on HIV prevention among black men who have sex with men and women funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH). Her book, Structural Intimacies: Sexual Stories in the Black AIDS Epidemic was published in 2013 by Rutgers University Press as part of their Critical Issues in Health and Medicine Series.

Courses
  • PHSC 3  Community Health

  • PHSC 125  Race, Class, Gender

  • PHSC 131  Community Health

  • PHSC/WGST 187  Structural Racism

  • PHSC 190  Senior Capstone ((varied content focus on race, class, gender, and health)
Publications
  • Mackenzie S. Forthcoming. Social Movement Organizing and the Politics of Emotion from HIV to Covid-19.

  • Mackenzie S. Forthcoming. Biogenetics and/at the Border: The Structural Intimacies of LGBTQ Transnational Kinship. Chapter in Integrating Reproductive Technologies: Propositions for a Life Course Approach in Social Studies of Reproduction. (Emerald Publishing, Victoria Boydell and Katie Dow, eds.)

  • Mackenzie S. Experiences of Gender and Sexual Minority Stress among LGBTQ Families: The Role of Community Resilience and Minority Coping. Advances in Medical Sociology: Special Issue on Sexual and Gender Minority Health. January 15, 2021.

  • Mackenzie S & Talbott A. Gender Justice: A Photovoice Gender Inclusion Curriculum for Elementary School Children. Gender Diversity Curricula, Susan Woolley and Lee Airton (eds). Canadian Scholars Press, 2020.

  • Mackenzie S. Queering Biology. Chapter in What’s in a Name? Stories of Inspiration from Non- Biological Moms. Demeter Press, 2020.

  • Mackenzie S, Michels C, & Chang J. Structures of sexuality: Sexual stigma, disclosure and HIV risk with primary female partners among behaviorally bisexual Black men. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 49:299- 310, January 2020.

  • Mackenzie SReframing ‘masculinity:’ Structural vulnerability and HIV among Black men who have sex with men and women. Culture, Health and Sexuality: 21:2,175-187, 2019.

  • Mackenzie S & Talbott A. Gender Through the Eyes of Children: A Photovoice Project with Elementary School Gender Expansive and LGBTQ-Parented Children and their Allies. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning. 18(6): 655-671, April 2018.

  • Mackenzie S & Brooks D. Stigma, Disclosure and Relationship Agency in Black Women’s Sexual Relationships with Behaviorally Bisexual Black Men. Sexuality and Culture. 22(3): 837-848, January 2018.

  • Mackenzie S, Rubin E, Gomez C. "'Prison is one place you don’t want your sexuality': Sexuality, desire and survival among incarcerated bisexual Black men in the United States." Champ Penal, October 2016.

  • Mackenzie S. Structural Intimacies: Sexual Stories in the Black AIDS Epidemic. Rutgers University Press. June 2013.

  • Mackenzie S, Pearson C, Frye V, Gómez CA, Latka MH, Purcell DW, Knowlton AR, Metsch LR, Tobin KE, Valverde EE, Knight KR. Agents of Change: Peer Mentoring as HIV Prevention among HIV-Positive Injection Drug Users. Substance Use and Misuse. 47(5): 522-534, 2012.

  • Mackenzie S. Dissecting the Social Body: Social Inequality through AIDS Counter Narratives. Public Understanding of Science. 20(4): 491–505, 2011.

  • Frye V, Fortin, P, Mackenzie S, Purcell D, Edwards LV, Mitchell SG, Valverde E, Garfein R, Metsch L, & Latka MH. Managing identity impacts associated with disclosure of HIV status: a qualitative investigation. AIDS Care. 21(8): 1071-1078, 2009.

  • Mizuno Y, Purcell DP, Mackenzie S, Tobin K, Wunch T, Arnsten JH, Metsch LR. Acceptability of A-CASI by HIV-Positive IDUs in a Multisite, Randomized, Controlled Trial of Behavioral Intervention (INSPIRE). Journal of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. 46(S2): S48-S54, 2007.

  • Mitchell SG, Edwards LV, Mackenzie S, Knowlton A, Valverde E, Arnsten JH, Santibanez S, Latka MH, Mizuno Y. Participants' Descriptions of Social Support Within a Multisite Intervention for HIV-Seropositive Injection Drug Users (INSPIRE). Journal of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. 46(S2): S55-S63, 2007.

  • Neuhauser L, Richardson D, Mackenzie S, Minkler M. Advancing transdisciplinary and translational research practice: Issues and models of doctoral education in public health. Journal of Research Practice. 3(2): Article M19, 2007.

  • Latka MH, Metsch LR, Mizuno Y, Tobin K, Mackenzie S, Arnsten JH, Gourevitch MN.  Unprotected sex among HIV-positive injection drug using women and their serodiscordant male partners: Role of personal and partner influences.  Journal of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. 42(2):222-8, 2006.

  • Mackenzie S. What are young women’s HIV prevention needs? UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies Factsheet, 2002.

  • Mackenzie S. Scientific Silence: AIDS and African Americans in the Medical Literature. American Journal of Public Health. 90(7): 1145-1146, 2000.

  • Hansen E, Mackenzie S, Booth K, Dawson Rose C. National Women and HIV Policy Agenda. Women’s AIDS Network, 1997.

 

Public Scholarship

  • Mackenzie S. (2021) Bloodlines and/at the Border: The Structural Intimacies of Transnational LGBTQ Kinship, Reproductive Sociology Research Group Blog, Cambridge University, March 2021.

  • Mackenzie S. (2021) ‘To heal we must remember’: Archives of Feeling from HIV Activism to COVID-19. Santa Clara University Center for Arts and Humanities Twin Pandemics Blog. February 2021.

  • Mackenzie S. (2020) The Particular Pain of Pandemic Grief. New York Times. August 14, 2020.

  • Mackenzie S. (2020) Grief in a Pandemic. National Public Radio KQED Perspective. July 14, 2020.

  • Mackenzie S. (2019) Queering Biology: Donor-Conceived LGBTQ Families Re/Defining Family. Daily Kos, June 30, 2019.

  • Mackenzie S. (2017) Podcast: Gender Justice: Gender through the eyes of Children. Santa Clara University Bannan Institute. https://soundcloud.com/integralpod/gender-justice-through-the-eyes-of-children-with-sonja-mackenzie. Santa Clara, CA, October 24, 2017.

  • Do No Harm Coalition. (2017) A Call To Action: Bridging Public Health And Medicine To Fight Racism, Police Brutality And State-Sanctioned Violence. Huffington Post, March 7, 2017.

  • Senior Academic Advisor. Santa Clara County Child Health Needs Assessment, Santa Clara County Public Health Department, Santa Clara, CA (2015 – 2016).

  • Mackenzie S. Talking about Orlando with our Children: A Call to Action for LGBTQ Families. Daily Kos, June 18, 2016.

  • Mackenzie S. When Kids Ask About Hate, Show Them Love. The Advocate. June 21, 2016.

Valeriote Goldman Symposium: Public Health & Social Justice