Simon Fern

About

I'm a PhD candidate at Rice University in the Department of Sociology, working at the intersection of the Sociology of Health & Illness and Migration Studies. My dissertation focusses on the health and wellbeing experiences of recently arrived immigrants in Spain, based on interviews conducted with 150 individuals. My dissertation contains 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. I expect to defend and graduate in December 2025.

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 dissertation work, I am part of a team 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 Simon E. Fern who is ordained, a sci-fi writer, and a chemistry PhD. We're different people.)