Profile

Biography

• PhD (Edinburgh)
• MSc (Edinburgh)
• BSc (Dundee)

Siân graduated from the University of Dundee in 2003 with a BSc in Molecular Genetics. In order to pursue her interest in the social issues surrounding developments in the new life sciences she undertook a taught MSc in Science and Technology studies at the University of Edinburgh. This allowed her to make the transition from the natural to social sciences and provided her with a theoretical grounding in the sociology of science, technology and medicine. Following this degree she was awarded a 1+3 ESRC studentship at Edinburgh (2005-2009), which enabled her to complete an MSc by Research and a PhD. Her doctoral research explored how expert knowledge is constructed by Scottish health professionals who are involved in the provision of termination of pregnancy.

Siân joined the Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU) in November 2009 to work with Nik Brown on the European Commission FP7 funded CIT-PART project, which explored the impact of public participation on policy-making concerning xenotransplantation. In August 2011 she was awarded a three year Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship in Biomedical Ethics to conduct a major new research project entitled ‘Time, timing and termination of pregnancy’. The project centres on exploring health professionals’ and patients’ experiences of termination of pregnancy provision in the UK, and in particular, their understandings of the meaning(s) of ‘time’ and ‘timing’ within this context.

Research

Overview

• Politics of expertise concerning reproductive and other new life science technologies
• The construction of human/non-human boundaries
• The sociological study of the healthcare profession
• Feminist theory

Siân's research interests include the politics of expertise concerning reproductive and other new life science technologies, the construction of human/non-human boundaries, and the sociological study of the healthcare profession. She is also interested in exploring the links and tensions between STS and feminist theory.

Publications

Selected publications

• Beynon-Jones, Siân M. (2012) Timing is Everything: The Demarcation of ‘Later’ Abortions in Scotland, Social Studies of Science, 42 (1) 53-74.
• Brown, N and Beynon-Jones, S.M. (2012 - in press) Reflex Regulation: An anatomy of promissory science governance. Health, Risk and Society.
• Beynon-Jones, S. M. and Brown, N (2011) Time, timing and narrative at the interface between UK technoscience and policy. Science and Public Policy 38(8) 639-648.
  
• Beynon-Jones, Siân M. (2009) Review of Maureen McNeil’s ‘Feminist Cultural Studies of Science and Technology’, Nelly Oudshoorn’s ‘The Male Pill: A Biography of a Technology in the Making,’ and Celia Roberts’s ‘Messengers of Sex: Hormones, Biomedicine and Feminism,’ Women’s Studies Quarterly 37 (1&2), 284-288.
• Beynon-Jones, Siân M. (2007) Review of “Nameless Relations: Anonymity, Melanesia, and Reproductive Gift Exchange Between British Ova Donors and Recipients” by Monica Konrad, British Journal of Sociology 58 (2), 328-329.