Biography
I am a medical sociologist based at The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care. Previously, I worked in the Department of Sociology at Cambridge where I was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow. From 2017 to 2022, I was the medical sociology subject manager on the MPhil in Health, Medicine and Society. Before studying for a PhD, I worked in the Centre for Sexual Health and HIV Research at UCL. I have a multidisciplinary background, with a BSc in Psychology and an MA in Gender Studies from the University of Leeds and a PhD in Sociology from Cambridge.
Research
I study how advances in medicine transform healthcare practices, intimate relationships and the ways people imagine the future. Much of my work has explored how sexual minorities and people living with HIV approach new possibilities that enable them to become parents, furthering the understanding of how technology changes reproduction. In recent years, my research has expanded into other areas of health, advancing a sociological analysis of cultures and systems of medicine while examining challenges facing the English NHS.
Publications
Martin G, Pralat R, Waring J and Peerally MF (2025) New forms of expertise and their implications for the system of professions in healthcare: The case of the patient safety specialist role in the English NHS. Social Science & Medicine 385: 118562.
Pralat R (2025) Reproductive imaginations: Process versus outcome in queer family making in Britain. In: Franklin S and Inhorn MC (eds) The New Reproductive Order: Technology, Fertility, and Social Change around the Globe. New York: NYU Press, pp. 86–102.
Pralat R, Anderson J, Burns F and Barber TJ (2024) Asked to be a sperm donor: Disclosure dilemmas of gay men living with HIV. Culture, Health & Sexuality 26(8): 997–1011.
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, 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 (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.
