
Passionate about student development.
Kelly Joyce is a professor in Social Science at Drexel University, serving in the Sociology Department and Center for Science, Technology & Society. She earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from Boston College and a B.A. in Anthropology from Brown University. Her academic appointments include Professor at Drexel University since 2012, Associate Professor at the College of William and Mary from 2008 to 2012, Assistant Professor there from 2002 to 2008, and Lecturer at Harvard University in the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies from 1999 to 2002. Joyce has held several administrative roles, such as Interim Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Drexel University from June 1, 2021, to August 31, 2022; founding Director of the Center for Science, Technology, & Society from 2012 to 2018; Interim Head of the Sociology Department from 2014 to 2015; Program Director at the National Science Foundation in the Science, Technology & Society Program and Ethics Education in Science and Engineering from 2009 to 2011; and Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the College of William and Mary from 2011 to 2012.
Her research interests include medical sociology, science and technology studies, sociology of aging, and qualitative methods. Key publications comprise her book Magnetic Appeal: MRI and the Myth of Transparency (Cornell University Press, 2008), which received the 2010 Eliot Freidson Outstanding Publication Award from the American Sociological Association Medical Sociology section; the co-edited volume Technogenarians: Studying Health and Illness through an Ageing, Technology, and Science Lens (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010); “Toward a Sociology of Artificial Intelligence: A Call for Research on Inequalities and Structural Change” (Socius, 2021); “Five Big Ideas About Artificial Intelligence” (Contexts, 2022); “Using Autoimmune Strategically: Diagnostic Lumping, Splitting, and the Experience of Illness” (Social Science & Medicine, 2020); and “Smart Textiles: Transforming the Practice of Medicalisation and Healthcare” (Sociology of Health and Illness, 2019). Awards include the 2011 National Science Foundation Director’s Award for Collaborative Integration, honorable mention for the 2007 IEEE Life Members’ Prize in Electrical History, the 2008 Alumni Fellowship Award for Excellence in Teaching from William and Mary, and the 2000/2001 Bok Award for Teaching Excellence from Harvard University. She guest-edited the special issue “Environmental Exposures: Technologies, Techniques, and Politics” for Environmental Sociology (2017).