Katherine McLean, Ph.D.

Katherine McLean, Ph.D., is a sociologist and ethnographer whose research explores the intersection between criminal justice and public health. Her past and present projects specifically consider how the simultaneous criminalization and medicalization of illicit drug use impact individual identity, community health, and other social institutions.

She is particularly interested in "harm reduction" strategies like syringe exchange and how such programs exist within and adapt to the "war on drugs." Her current research project considers how social networks shape, and are shaped by heroin and opioid use in southwest Pennsylvania.