Sociology Faculty Directory

Sharlene Janice Nagy Hesse-Biber is Professor of Sociology and former Director of the Women's & Gender Studies Program at Boston College for many decades. Her current research is centered on the lived experiences of women and men harboring BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants that predispose them to various cancers. She has conducted extensive research and published about the psychosocial impacts of a BRCA+ diagnosis among the male population, specifically access to and pursuit of genetic testing, lack of psychosocial support, and strategies to improve diagnostic and prognostic services for male BRCA1/2 mutation carriers—a historically underrecognized population. This work is complemented by her comprehensive investigation of genetic testing and intrafamilial communication impacting women's health outcomes with a BRCA mutation, scrutinized under an intersectional light. Among her co-authored journal articles are "'Identity Theft' in BRCA1/2: Impact of Positive Genetic Test Results and Risk-Reducing Interventions," "Parent of Origin Differences in Psychosocial Burden and Approach to BRCA Risk Management," "Gender Differences in Psychosocial and Medical Outcomes Stemming From Testing Positive for the BRCA1/2 Genetic Mutation for Breast Cancer: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Study," and "Genetic Testing and Post-Testing Decision Making among BRCA-Positive Mutation Women: A Psychological Approach." 

She released her monograph on women and genetic testing, Waiting for Cancer to Come: Genetic Testing and Women’s Medical Decision Making for Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer, (2014) with The University of Michigan Press, concurrent with publications on each of these issues. Preceding her gender and health research, she has published widely on the impact of sociocultural factors on women’s body image, including her book Am I Thin Enough Yet? The Cult of Thinness and the Commercialization of Identity (Oxford, 1996), which was selected as one of Choice magazine’s best academic books in 1996. She also published The Cult of Thinness (Oxford, 2007).  

Her most recent work forges a new research design that integrates AI as an ethical ally to mixed-methods qualitative inquiry, given new technologies. She has also written extensively on methodological issues, including the role of technology and emergent methods in social research. Her publications include books and articles in peer-reviewed journals. She is co-editor of Emergent Methods in Social Research (Sage, 2006) andThe Handbook of Emergent Technologies in Social Research (Oxford, 2011), co-author of ThePractice of Qualitative Research (Sage, 2006; second edition, 2010; third edition, 2014), and editor of theHandbook of Feminist Research: Theory and Praxis (Sage, 2007; 2012), which was selected as one of the Critics’ Choice Award winners by the American Education Studies Association and was also chosen as one of Choice Magazine’s Outstanding Academic titles for 2007. As well, she is co-editor of the Handbook of Emergent Methods (Guilford, 2008), a contributor to the Handbook of Grounded Theory(Sage, 2008) as well to the Handbook of Mixed Methods Research (Sage second edition, 2010).  The Oxford Handbook of Multimethod and Mixed Methods Research Inquiry was edited by Sharlene Hesse-Biber and R. Burke Johnson (Oxford, 2015). She has authored Mixed Methods Research: Merging Theory with Practice (Guilford, 2010). She edited The Practice of Feminist Research (Sage, 2014). 

Professor Hesse-Biber is also co-developer of the software program HyperRESEARCH, a computer-assisted program for analyzing qualitative data, and the new transcription tool HyperTRANSCRIBE. View a fully functional free demo of these programs. This website provides links to a free teaching edition for both programs.