Simon Fern

About

I earned my PhD from Rice University's Department of Sociology in 2025. My work straddles the study of health and illness, medicine, and migration. Prior to Rice, I studied for an MA (Cand. Mag.) at the University of Copenhagen's Centre for Advanced Migration Studies, and an MA (hons.) in English literature and history at Edinburgh University.

My dissertation focused on the health and medical experiences of recently arrived immigrants in Spain, based on interviews conducted with 150 individuals. The dissertation was titled: Immigrant experiences of healthcare and medical practice in Spain: concerning harm in sexual and reproductive healthcare, the accumulation of advantage and reinterpretation of care, and coloniality as a determinant of health. 

My dissertation contained three studies. The first addresses immigrant women's experiences of harm in sexual and reproductive healthcare, the second concerns advantaged or 'elite' immigrants moving from the United States to Europe, and the third considers the enduring legacy of the Spanish colonial occupation of the Philippines.

My work has appeared in Social Science & Medicine, the Journal of Marriage and Family, the American Journal of Public Health, and is forthcoming in the Russell Sage Foundation Journal.

Beyond my core work, I have worked as part of a team of health and family scholars researching low-income Black mothers' experiences of COVID-19, government assistance, and food insecurity in Houston's Sunnyside neighbourhood.

(Note: There is another Dr. Simon E. Fern who is ordained, a sci-fi writer, and a chemistry PhD. We're different people.)