Research Interests

• Gender
• Health and Medicine
• Reproduction and Birth
• Sexual Harassment
• Organizations

Courses Taught at Texas A&M

• SOCI 207: Introduction to Gender and Society
• SOCI 220: Methods of Social Research
• SOCI 410: Reproduction, Birth and Power
• SOCI 425: Medical Sociology
• SOCI 635: Sociology of Complex Organization

Bio

Current Projects

The “Listening to Mothers III” Project
This project examines quantitative and qualitative survey data on women’s birth experiences. We analyze how hospital and individual characteristics affect women’s birth experiences and outcomes. (With Christine Morton, Miriam Naiman-Sessions, and Amanda Gomez)

The “Delivering Obamacare” Project
This project explores how the Affordable Care Act put performance pressures on hospitals, which led to an increase of non-profit hospitals being acquired by for-profit hospitals. Using ethnographic methods, I analyze one hospital during such a transition and discover how obstetrical nurses and their patients are affected by this tumultuous change.

Representative Publications

• 2018. Theresa Morris. Health Care in Crisis: Hospitals, Nurses and the Consequences of Policy Change. New York: New York University Press.
• 2018. Theresa Morris, Amanda Gomez, Miriam Naiman-Sessions, and Christine Morton. “Paradox Lost on the U.S.-Mexico Border: U.S. Latinas and Cesarean Rates.” BMC: Pregnancy and Childbirth.
• 2017. Theresa Morris, Kelly McNamara, and Christine Morton. “Hospital-Ownership Status and Cesareans in the United States: The Effect of For-Profit Hospitals.” Birth 44(4):325-330.
• 2016. Theresa Morris. Cut It Out: The C-Section Epidemic America, Revised Paperback. New York: New York University Press.
• 2016. Theresa Morris, Olivia Meredith, Mia Schulman, and Christine Morton. 2016. “Why Do Low-Risk Women Have C-Sections?: A Case Study of a Tertiary Care Hospital.” Women’s Health Issues 26(3):329-335.
• 2014. Theresa Morris and Mia Schulman. “Racial Inequality in the Use and Failure of Anesthesia in Labor and Birth: An Examination of Women’s Experiences.” Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare 5(4):188-194
• 2014. Theresa Morris. “C-Section Epidemic.” Contexts 13(1): 70-72.
• 2013. Theresa Morris. Cut It Out: The C-Section Epidemic America. New York: New York University Press.
• 2010. Harland Prechel and Theresa Morris. “The Effects of Organizational and Political Embeddedness on Financial Malfeasance in the Largest U.S. Corporations: Dependence, Incentives, and Opportunities.” American Sociological Review 75(3):331-354.
• 2010. Theresa Morris and Katherine McInerney. “Media Representations of Pregnancy and Childbirth:  An Analysis of Reality Television Programs in the United States.” Birth 37(2):134-140.
• 2008. Theresa Morris. “Branch Banking and Institutional Racism in the U.S. Banking Industry. Humanity and Society 32(2):144-167.
• 2008. Harland Prechel, Theresa Morris, Tim Woods, and Rachel Walden. “Corporate Diversification Revisited: The Political-Legal Environment, the Multilayer-Subsidiary Form, and Mergers and Acquisitions.” The Sociological Quarterly 49(4):849-878.
• 2007. Theresa Morris. “Internal and External Sources of Organizational Change: Corporate Form and the Banking Industry.” The Sociological Quarterly 48(1):119-140.