Biography

Shannon K. Carter is Professor and Associate Chair of Sociology at the University of Central Florida. Her primary research areas are sociology of reproduction, social inequalities, and sociology of health and medicine.

Dr. Carter’s research examines social inequalities in reproductive health, revealing reproductive constraints and perspectives of underserved populations, including Black women and transgender people, and stigmatized practices like breastmilk sharing and breastfeeding in public. She has numerous publications on reproduction, breastfeeding, and breastmilk sharing, appearing in journals such as Gender & SocietySociology of Health & Illness, Women’s Studies International Forum, Journal of Human Lactation, and The Journal of Pediatrics. Her book, Sharing Milk: Intimacy, Materiality, and Bio-Communities of Practice, co-authored with Beatriz M. Reyes-Foster, was published in 2020 with Bristol University Press. She has received several research honors, including the Gloria Anzaldúa Research Excellence Award, Woman of Distinction Award for Excellence in Innovation, and induction into UCF’s Scroll and Quill Society. She is currently Chair of the Gender Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems and member of the Advisory Board for Sociological Inquiry.