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ReproSoc

Reproductive Sociology Research Group
 

Biography

Dr Robert Pralat is a research associate at THIS Institute in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge, working on projects aimed at the improvement of healthcare. Previously, he held various roles in the Department of Sociology at Cambridge, where he maintains an affiliation. Most recently, he was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and the medical sociology subject manager on the MPhil in Health, Medicine and Society.

In his research, Robert has examined how cultural changes and advances in medicine shape people’s views about parenthood, with a particular focus on sexual minorities and men living with HIV. This work has specifically attended to how people imagine their futures and how they approach the prospect of having – or not having – children. Robert’s recent research has explored the role of desire in people’s engagement with health technologies and moral judgements about public funding allocation in healthcare.

Robert has taught at Cambridge since 2012, lecturing, supervising and leading modules in the areas of health, gender, family, reproduction and qualitative research methods. Before moving to Cambridge, he worked in the Centre for Sexual Health and HIV Research at UCL and in the Office for Public Management, where he conducted research on public service improvement. He has a BSc in Psychology and an MA in Gender Studies from the University of Leeds, and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge.

You can follow Robert on TwitterAcademia or ResearchGate.

Publications

Key publications: 

Pralat R, Anderson J, Burns F, Yarrow E and Barber TJ (2021) Discussing parenthood with gay men diagnosed with HIV: A qualitative study of patient and healthcare practitioner perspectives. BMC Public Health 21: 2300.

Pralat R, Burns F, Anderson J and Barber TJ (2021) Can HIV-positive gay men become parents? How men living with HIV and HIV clinicians talk about the possibility of having children. Sociology of Health & Illness 43(2): 281–298.

Pralat R (2021) Sexual identities and reproductive orientations: Coming out as wanting (or not wanting) to have children. Sexualities 24(1–2): 276–294.

Pralat R (2020) Parenthood as intended: Reproductive responsibility, moral judgements and having children ‘by accident’. The Sociological Review 68(1): 161–176.

Pralat R (2018) More natural does not equal more normal: Lesbian, gay, and bisexual people’s views about different pathways to parenthood. Journal of Family Issues 39(18): 4179–4203.

Pralat R (2016) Between future families and families of origin: Talking about gay parenthood across generations. In: Pooley S and Qureshi K (eds) Parenthood Between Generations: Transforming Reproductive Cultures. Oxford: Berghahn Books, pp. 43–64.

Pralat R (2015) Repro-sexual intersections: Sperm donation, HIV prevention and the public interest in semen. Reproductive Biomedicine Online 30(3): 211–219.

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow
Dr Robert  Pralat

Contact Details

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