Skip to main content
School of Business and Management
  1. School of business and management
  2. Staff
  3. Academic Staff
  4. Profiles

Professor Manuela Perrotta

Manuela

Professor of Sociology of Technology and Organisation

Email: m.perrotta@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7882 6542
Room Number: Room 2.36, Francis Bancroft Building, Mile End Campus

Profile

Roles:

Biography:

I am a Professor of Sociology of Technology and Organisation at School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) where I also serve as Research Impact Director.

I am a sociologist with expertise in qualitative methods, specialising in biomedical innovation in fertility care, the commercialisation of health services, and their impact on the lived experience of health and illness. I was awarded a PhD in Sociology from the University of Trento in 2008.

Keynotes and invited talks:

Over my career, I have presented at more than 60 peer-reviewed conferences and delivered over 30 invited talks at national and international conferences, seminars, and public-facing events, including six keynote lectures.

In the past ten years, I have been invited to present my research at prestigious venues such as a British Sociological Association Postgraduate Regional Event (2025), a Centre for Reproduction Research Seminar at De Montfort Univ. (2018, 2024), a Padova Science Technology & Innovation Studies Seminar at the Univ. of Padova (2024), a Wenner-Gren Foundation Seminar at the Univ. of Bologna (2023), the annual conferences of the Italian Association of Sociology and the Italian Society of the Sociology of Health (2021), and roundtables organised by the Cambridge Reproduction Interdisciplinary Research Centre, Univ. of Cambridge (2018) and STS Italia, Univ. of Bologna (2018). I have also contributed to seminar series at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (2017), delivered a public lecture at the Center for Ethics and Law in Biomedicine, Central European Univ. (2015), and served as discussant at the IVF Histories and Cultures Workshop, Univ. of Cambridge (2015).

In addition, I have been invited to present my work at key medical conferences, including the Annual Conference of the British Infertility Counsellors Association (BICA, 2025), the Annual Symposium of the Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists (ARCS, 2024), and the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE, 2023 and 2024). I have also been invited to present to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA, 2022 and 2024) and the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA, 2022).

Societies, editorial boards, and reviewing activities:

From 2013 to 2015, I served as Vice President of the Italian Society for the Study of Science and Technology (STS Italia), reflecting my longstanding engagement in the STS community.

I have held significant editorial roles, including membership on the editorial board of Tecnoscienza: Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies since 2010, and was a co-Editor-in-Chief from 2016 to 2024. I was a member of the Associate Board of the journal Sociology from 2019 to 2022 and served on the editorial board of Reproductive BioMedicine and Society Online from 2015 to 2022. These roles testify to my recognised standing in the international STS and reproductive sociology communities.

I regularly contribute as a peer reviewer for leading academic journals in several disciplines, including Science Studies; Biosocieties; Health; Sociology of Health and Illness; Social Science & Medicine; Sociology; Organization; Organization Studies; Human Relations; Information Technology and People; British Medical Journal; Reproductive BioMedicine Online; and Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia.

Public profile:

My research has received wide media coverage in high-profile international and specialist outlets, including The New York Times, The Telegraph, iNews, Medical Xpress, News-Medical, Femtech World, ScienMag, Health Europa, and BioNews. Collectively, these appearances have reached audiences of over two million, reflecting the public relevance and policy resonance of my work.

Organisation of scientific meetings:

I have contributed extensively to the organisation of academic events as a member of scientific and organising committees and as a convenor.

I served on the scientific committee of multiple national and international conferences, including the European Group for Organisational Studies (EGOS, 2026), the STS Italia Conference (2025, 2023, 2020, 2018, 2014), and the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST, 2010). I also contributed to the organisation of several summer schools, seminar cycles, and public-facing events.

In addition, I acted as a convenor at numerous national and international conferences, including the STS Italia Conference (2023, 2020, 2018, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008), EASST (2010, 2012, 2014), EGOS (2011), and the Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities Conference (OLKC, 2010).

Academic leadership roles:

I am currently Research Income Director at QMUL’s School of Business and Management (since September 2022), where I devise strategies to strengthen external grant applications and oversee related activities. I previously chaired the School’s Research Ethics Committee in 2022 and directed the Organisational Processes and Practices Research Group from 2021 to 2023. I also co-directed the Queen Mary Ethnographers Network (QM-Ethno-net) from 2017 to 2020, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among ethnography scholars.

 

Teaching

BUS 141 - Fundamentals of Management

 

Research

Research Interests:

Professor Perrotta’s research explores the social, political, and economic dimensions of health and medicine, with particular attention to the emergence of healthcare markets, the governance of biomedical innovations, reproductive health, uncertainty in medical practice, and the translation of research into policy and lived experience.

Research interests

  • Reproductive health, technologies, and markets
  • Introduction, enactment, and commercialisation of biomedical innovations
  • Good governance of health and medicine
  • The crisis of evidence-based medicine, health policies, and their impact on lived experiences of illness and health
  • Emergence of private markets in healthcare
  • Uncertainty and the management of health

Centre and Group Membership

Member of the Organisation Studies Group

 

Publications

(co-authorship is equal unless otherwise indicated)

Book

2024 Perrotta M., Biomedical Innovation in the Hope Market: Evidence Challenges and Commercialization in Fertility Care, Bristol University Press, ISBN 978-1-5292-3674-3.

Edited Book

2011 Magnini, B. and Perrotta, M., (Eds.) Adolescenti digitali [Digital teenagers], Trento: FBK Press, ISBN 978-88-905389-8-8.

Articles in journals

  1. 2025, Reynolds, D., Perrotta, M., Maielli, G., “Findings trials for participants: An ethnographic study of successful recruitment strategies for clinical trials”, Trials, https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-025-08993-6
  2. 2025, Perrotta, M., Smietana, M., Adesina, M., & Wilkinson, J., “Exploring fertility treatment add-on use, information transparency and costs in the UK: Insights from a patient survey”, Human Fertility, 28(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/14647273.2025.2469533
  3. 2024, Serdarogullari M., Ammar O.F., Mincheva M., Massarotti C., Ali Z.E., Makieva S., Uraji J., Fraire-Zamora J.J., Sharma K., Sfontouris I., Macklon N., Verpoest W., Perrotta M., Liperis G., “Add-ons in medically assisted reproduction: From evidence to clinical practice”, Human Reproduction, deae287, https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/deae287
  4. 2024, Perrotta, M., Zampino, L., Geampana, A. and Bhide, P., “Analysing Adherence to Guidelines for Time-Lapse Imaging Information on UK Fertility Clinic Websites”, Human Fertility, online.
  5. 2024, Geampana, A. and Perrotta, M. “Using interview excerpts to facilitate focus group discussion”, Qualitative Research, online open access.
  6. 2023, Hamper, J. & Perrotta, M. “Blurring the divide: Navigating the public/private landscape of fertility treatment in the UK”, Health & Place., 80, online open access.
  7. 2023, Perrotta, M. & Hamper, J. “Patient informed choice in the age of evidence-based medicine: IVF patients’ perspectives on medical evidence and fertility treatment add-ons”, Sociology of Health and Illness, 45 (2), pp. 225-241, online open access.
  8. 2023 Geampana A. & Perrotta M., “Predicting Success in the Embryology Lab: The Use of Algorithmic Technologies in Knowledge Production”, Science, Technology & Human Values, 48(1).
  9. 2022 Hamper J.A. & Perrotta M., “Watching embryos: Exploring the geographies of assisted reproduction through encounters with embryo imaging technologies”, Social & Cultural Geography, online open access.
  10. 2022 Geampana A. & Perrotta M., “Accounting for complexity in healthcare innovation debates: Professional views on the use of new IVF treatments”, Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, DOI 1177/13634593221074874.
  11. 2021 Perrotta M. & Geampana A., Enacting evidence-based medicine in fertility care: tensions between commercialisation and knowledge standardisation, Sociology of Health and Illness, 43, n. 9, pp. 2015-2030 online open access.
  12. 2021 Perrotta M. & Hamper J.A., The crafting of hope: Contextualising add-ons in the treatment trajectories of IVF patients, Social Science & Medicine, Article 114317, ISSN: 0277-9536, online open access.
  13. 2020 Perrotta, M. and Geampana, A., “The trouble with IVF and randomised control trials: Professional legitimation narratives on time-lapse imaging and evidence-informed care”, Social Science & Medicine, vol 258, August 2020, Article 113115, ISSN: 0277-9536, online open access.
  14. 2018 Perrotta M., Spilker K. and Crabu S., Guest Editors’ Introduction to the Special Section “Sliding Cells. The Situated Making of Bio-Objects in IVF”, Tecnoscienza: Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies, vol. 9, n. 1, pp. 5-8, ISSN: 2038-3460.
  15. 2016 Gherardi S. and Perrotta M., “Re-thinking induction in practice: Profession, peer group and organization in contention" (re-printed paper on an anniversary issue with foreword), Society and Business Review, vol. 11, n. 2, pp. 193 - 209, ISSN: 1746-5680.
  16. 2016 Gherardi S. and Perrotta M., “Daughters Taking Over the Family Business: Their Justification Work within a Dual Regime of Engagement”, International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, vol. 8, n. 1, pp. 28 – 47, ISSN: 1756-6266.
  17. 2015 Gherardi S. and Perrotta M., “Le forme del sapere pratico: percorsi d’apprendimento nell’imprenditoria artigiana femminile” [The forms of practical knowledge: learning paths in female artisan entrepreneurship], Quaderni dell’Artigianato, Quaderni di Ricerca sull’artigianato, vol. 69, n. 1, pp. 25-42, ISSN 1590-296X.
  18. 2014 Gherardi S. and Perrotta M., “Between the Hand and the Head: How Things Get Done, and How in Doing the Ways of Doing are Discovered”, Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management, vol. 9, n. 2, pp. 134-150, ISSN 1746-5648.
  19. 2014 Bruni A. and Perrotta M., “Entrepreneuring Together: His and Her Stories”, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, vol. 20, n. 2, pp. 108-27, ISSN 1355-2554.
  20. 2013 Perrotta M., “Creating Human Life Itself. The Emerging Meanings of Reproductive Cells among Science, State and Religion”, Guest Editor’s Introduction to the Special Issue on “Re-conceiving Life in the Labs: The Emerging Meanings of Cells in the Italian Reproductive Biomedicine and Beyond”, Tecnoscienza: Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies, vol. 4, n. 1, pp. 7-22, ISSN: 2038-3460.
  21. 2012 Parolin L.L. and Perrotta M., “On the Fringe of Parenthood: Othering and Otherness in the Italian Assisted Kinship”, About Gender. International Journal of Gender Studies, vol 1, n. 2, p. 100-31, ISSN 2279-5057.
  22. 2012 Örtenblad A., Snell R., Perrotta M., and Akella D., “On the Paradoxical Balancing of Paceneaism and Particularism within the Field of Management Learning”, Introduction to the Special Issue on “Universalist, Local and Glocal Perspectives on Management Learning”, Management Learning, vol. 43, n. 2, pp. 147-155.
  23. 2011 Gherardi S. and Perrotta M., “Egg dates sperm: a tale of a practice change and its stabilization”, Organization, vol. 18, n. 5, pp. 595-614.
  24. 2011 Perrotta M., “Il pre-embrione (non) è uno di noi: breve storia di una innovazione inter-organizzativa tra istituzioni, comunità professionali e tecnologie” [The pre-embryo is (not) one of us: a brief history of inter-organizational innovation among institutions, professional communities and technologies], Sociologia del Lavoro, n. 122, pp. 194-206.
  25. 2011 Bosisio M., Collecchia G., Mangiagalli A., Ciminaghi R., Parolin LL, and Perrotta M., “Attribuibilità degli eventi cardiovascolari in medicina generale” [Attributability of cardiovascular events in general practice], Ricerca & Pratica, n. 27, pp. 48-58.
  26. 2010 Gherardi S. and Perrotta M., “Where is induction? Profession, peer group and organization in contention”, Society and Business Review, vol. 5, n. 1, pp. 84-98.
  27. 2009 Lusardi R. and Perrotta M., “Da Alfa ad Omega: la riconfigurazione del corpo nelle organizzazioni sanitarie” [From Alpha to Omega: the reconfiguration of the body in health care organizations], Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, n. 4, pp. 609-633.
  28. 2007 Bruni A. and Perrotta M., “Apprendimento inter-organizzativo e biotecnologie: dai network al networking” [Inter-organizational learning and biotechnologies: from networks to networking], Studi Organizzativi, 1, pp. 197-214.

Journal special issues

  1. 2018 Perrotta M., Spilker K., and Crabu S., “Sliding Cells: The Situated Making of Bio-Objects in IVF”, Special Section, Tecnoscienza: Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies, vol. 9, n. 1.
  2. 2013 Perrotta M., “Re-conceiving Life in the Labs: The Emerging Meanings of Cells in the Italian Reproductive Biomedicine and Beyond”, Special Issue, Tecnoscienza: Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies, vol. 4, n. 1.
  3. 2012 Örtenblad A., Snell R., Perrotta M., and Akella D., “Universalist, Local and Glocal Perspectives on Management Learning”, Special Issue, Management Learning, vol. 43, n. 2.

Review essays

  1. 2012 Perrotta M., “The Study of Technoscientific Imaging in STS”, Tecnoscienza: Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies, vol. 3, n. 2, 163-76.

Chapters in books

  1. 2024, Perrotta M., “Seeing through Machines: Algorithms and the Pursuit of Mechanical Objectivity in Embryo Imaging”, Arnaldi S., Crabu S. and Viteritti A. (Eds.), "Interfacing Bodies and Technologies: Practices, imaginaries and materiality", Trieste, EUT, pp. 23-40, ISBN 978-88-5511-490-5, open access.
  2. 2016 Perrotta M., “Reframing conception, reproducing society: Italian paradoxes”, Lykke N. and Lie M. (Eds.), Assisted Reproduction across Borders: Feminist Perspectives on Normalizations, Disruptions and Transmissions, London: Routledge, pp. 139-151, ISBN: 9781138674646.
  3. 2014 Gherardi S. and Perrotta M., “Becoming a practitioner: professional learning as a social practice”, in Billett S., Harteis C. and Gruber H. (Eds.) International Handbook on Research in Professional and Practice-based Learning, Berlin: Springer, pp. 139-162, ISBN 978-94-017-8901-1.
  4. 2014 Gherardi S. and Perrotta M., “Gender, ethnicity and social entrepreneurship: Qualitative Approaches to the Study of Entrepreneuring”, in Chell E. and Karataş-Özkan M. (Eds), Handbook of Research in Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Cheltenham UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar, pp. 130-47, ISBN 978-1-84980-923-8.
  5. 2013 Gherardi S. and Perrotta M., “Doing by Inventing the Way of Doing: Formativeness as the Linkage of Meaning and Matter”, in Carlile, P., Nicolini, D., Tsoukas, H., Langley, A. (Eds.) How Matter Matters: Objects, Artifacts and Materiality in Organization Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-967153-3.
  6. 2012 Perrotta M., “Ambientare il sapere pratico: relazioni, contesti e situazioni come occasioni d’apprendimento” [Placing practical knowledge: relationships, contexts and situations as opportunities for learning], in Gherardi S. (ed.), L’arte del saper fare: donne artigiane e creatività pratica, Milano: Ledizioni, pp. 91-123, ISBN 9788895994970.
  7. 2012 Gherardi S. and Perrotta M., “Fare inventando il modo di fare” [Doing inventing the way of doing], in Gherardi S. (ed.), L’arte del saper fare: donne artigiane e creatività pratica, Milano: Ledizioni, pp. 185-213, ISBN 9788895994970.
  8. 2011 Perrotta, M., “Introduzione. Nativi e migranti digitali” [Introduction. Digital natives and migrants], in Magnini, B. and Perrotta, M. (Eds.), Adolescenti digitali, Trento: FBK Press, pp. 53-61, ISBN 978-88-905389-8-8.
  9. 2011 Perrotta, M., “L’identikit degli adolescenti digitali trentini” [Digital teenagers in Trentino], in Magnini, B. and Perrotta, M. (Eds.), Adolescenti digitali, Trento: FBK Press, pp. 63-83, ISBN 978-88-905389-8-8.
  10. 2011 Perrotta, M., “Nuovi consumi culturali nell’era digitale” [New cultural consumption in the digital age], in Magnini, B. and Perrotta, M. (Eds.), Adolescenti digitali, Trento: FBK Press, pp. 85-110, ISBN 978-88-905389-8-8.
  11. 2011 Perrotta, M., “Internet tra presente e futuro” [Internet between present and future], in Magnini, B. and Perrotta, M. (Eds.), Adolescenti digitali, Trento: FBK Press, pp. 111-44, ISBN 978-88-905389-8-8.
  12. 2011 Perrotta, M., “I social network: nuovi modi di socializzare?” [Social networks: new ways to socialize?], in Magnini, B. and Perrotta, M. (Eds.), Adolescenti digitali, Trento: FBK Press, pp. 145-65, ISBN 978-88-905389-8-8.
  13. 2011 Perrotta, M., “Conclusioni. Mai più soli?” [Concusions. Never being alone again], in Magnini, B. and Perrotta, M. (Eds.), Adolescenti digitali, Trento: FBK Press, pp. 167-70, ISBN 978-88-905389-8-8.
  14. 2010 Perrotta, M., “Situated practices as the locus of technological change”, in Jordan S. and Mitterhofer H. (Eds.), Beyond Knowledge Management – Sociomaterial and Sociocultural Perspectives within Management Research, Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press, p. 147-169, ISBN 978-3-90-27-19-45-4.
  15. 2010 Perrotta, M., “Developments in the Debate on Assisted Reproduction: A Gender Perspective”, in Glantz B. and Edquist K. (Eds.), Male and Female Infertility: Genetic Causes, Hormonal Treatments and Health Effects, Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers, pp. 157-169, ISBN: 978-1-60876-654-3.
  16. 2009 Perrotta, M., “Genere e biotecnologie: evoluzioni nel dibattito sulla riproduzione assistita” [Gender and biotechnology: developments in the debate on assisted conception], in Poggio B. (ed.), Ai confini gel genere. Prospettive emergenti di riflessione e ricerca, Trento: Edizioni31, pp. 75-96, ISBN: 978-88-88224-56-5.
  17. 2009 Perrotta M., “Developing competences-in-practice: learning stories of female entrepreneurs in small business”, in Illeris K. (ed.), International Perspectives on Competence Development, London: Routledge, pp. 147-163, ISBN 978-0-415-49211-9.
  18. 2008 Perrotta M., “The organizational construction of the body in the assisted reproductive technologies”, in Molfino F. and Zucco F. (Eds.), Women on Biotechnology, Milano: Springer, pp. 171-181, ISBN 978-1-4020-8610-6.
  19. 2008 Perrotta M., “Ri-produrre la vita: scelta tecnologica e visione professionale [Re-producing life: technological choice and professional vision]”, in Gherardi S. (ed.), Apprendimento tecnologico e tecnologie di apprendimento, Bologna: Il Mulino, pp. 241-272, ISBN 978-88-15-12521-7.
  20. 2008 Perrotta M., “La storia di Lei e la storia di Lui” [Her and his story], in Gherardi S. (ed.), Storie di imprenditrici e di imprese artigiane, Milano: Franco Angeli, pp. 129-157, ISBN 978-88-464-9756-7.

 

Conference Proceedings

  1. 2022 Perrotta M., “Riproduzione assistita e innovazione tecnologica tra medicina delle evidenze e mercato”, Le sfide della Sociologia della Salute. VIII Convegno Società Italiana della Sociologia della Salute (Conference Proceedings), in Di Santo R., Lusardi R., Mascagni G., and Ugolini P., ISBN: 978-88-947138-0-0.
  2. 2022 Perrotta, M., & Hamper, J. “P-266 Sharing time-lapse embryo videos with patients: recommendations to prevent patients’ unnecessary distress”. Human Reproduction, 37(Supplement_1), deac107-255.
  3. 2019 Perrotta, M., Geampana, A., & Hamper, J. “O11 Integrating new biomedical technologies in IVF treatment: the case of time-lapse imaging”. BMJ Open, 9(Suppl 1), A4-A4.
  4. 2018 Geampana, A., M. Perrotta, A. S. Giraud, and J. Hamper. “The ethics of commercialization: a temporal analysis of newspaper coverage of IVF add-ons in the UK”. Human Reproduction, vol. 33, pp. 279-280.
  5. 2015 Perrotta, M. “Forbidden parenthood: Hidden stories of assisted reproduction in Italy”, in Conference’s proceedings, Assisted Reproduction in Europe: Social, Ethical and Legal Ιssues, 11-13 December 2014, Thessaloniki, Greece. Republished in 2016 in Culture and Research, vol 5, pp. 145-56. (Translated in Greek “Απαγορευμένη Γονεϊκότητα: Κρυφές ιστορίες υποβοηθούμενης αναπαραγωγής στην Ιταλία” [Greek translation], in Υποβοηθούμενη Αναπαραγωγή στην Ευρώπη: κοινωνικά, ηθικά και νομικά ζητήματα. Δημοσιεύματα Ιατρικού Δικαίου και Βιοηθικής - 20 I, 2015, Εκδ. Σάκκουλα)
  6. 2012 Parolin L.L. and Perrotta M., “Corpi al confino: ripensare la cittadinanza riproduttiva in Italia” [Bodies in confinement: rethinking reproductive citizenship in Italy], in Bellè E., Poggio B. and Selmi G. (Eds.), Attraverso i Confini del Genere. Atti del Convegno, Trento: Università degli Studi di Trento, Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Qualitativa, pp. 341-52, ISBN 978-88-8443-430-2.
  7. 2011 Perrotta, M., “Esserci col corpo: fare etnografia nelle organizzazioni sanitarie [Being there with the body: Doing ethnography in health care organizations]”, in Krippendorff K. and La Rocca G. (Eds.), Ricerca qualitativa e giovani studiosi. Atti del Convegno Internazionale “RiQGioS-2011”, Palermo: Social Books, pp. 78-85, ISBN: 978-88–95279–18-3.

Book reviews

  1. 2014 Perrotta M., book review of Reproductive Medicine and the Life Sciences in the Contemporary Economy. A Sociomaterial Perspective, Alexander Styhre and Rebecka Arman: Gower 2013, published in Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies, vol. 2, n. 2, 46-47, ISSN: 1894-4647.
  2. 2011 Perrotta M., book review of Biocapitale – Vita e corpi nell'era del controllo biologico [Biocapital. Life and bodies in the age of biological control], M. Turrini (ed.), Verona: Ombre Corte, 2011, published in The Italian Journal of Science and Technology Studies, vol. 2, n. 2, 129-132, ISSN 2038-3460.
  3. 2010 Perrotta M., book review of Learning from Work – Designing Organizations for Learning and Communication, Beamish, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008, published in The British Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 48, n. 2, pp. 453-55.
  4. 2008 Perrotta M., book review of Le convenzioni del lavoro, il lavoro delle convenzioni, [The conventions of work, the work of conventions] V. Borghi and T. Vitale (Eds.), Monographic issue of “Sociologia del Lavoro”, 2006, published in Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, 2008, v. XLIX, n. 3, pp. 497-499.

Other Publications

  1. 2022 Coletta, C., Crabu, S., & Perrotta, M. “Doing STS in Times of Crises”. Tecnoscienza: Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies, vol. 13, n. 1, pp. 5-8.
  2. 2020 Bruni, A., Magaudda, P., & Perrotta, M. “Do It First, Do It Yourself, and Keep on Doing It”: Ten Years of Tecnoscienza. Tecnoscienza: Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies, vol. 11, n. 1, pp. 7-14.

 

 

Supervision

Areas of Supervision Expertise

Professor Perrotta welcomes enquiries from prospective doctoral students whose research interests align with the following areas:

Introduction, enactment, and commercialisation of biomedical innovations
Studying how new biomedical technologies are developed, introduced into clinical practice, translated into markets, and enacted in the lives of professionals, patients, and wider publics.

Emergence of private markets in healthcare

Exploring how commercial actors, market logics, and new business models shape healthcare provision, access, and inequalities.

The crisis of evidence-based medicine, health policies, and their impact on lived experiences of illness and health

Examining tensions between scientific evidence, policy-making, and the everyday realities of those living with illness, including how evidence is produced, contested, and enacted.

Uncertainty and the management of health

Investigating how individuals, professionals, and institutions navigate uncertainty in health and illness, including diagnostic ambiguity, contested evidence, and the challenges of decision-making in conditions of risk.

Good governance of health and medicine

Investigating frameworks, practices, and challenges of accountability, transparency, and regulation in healthcare systems and medical innovation.

Professor Perrotta particularly encourages projects that combine sociological analysis with interdisciplinary approaches, and that engage critically with contemporary debates in medical sociology, science and technology studies, organisation studies and health policy.

 

Current doctoral students

Jiahui Ma, Family Role Conflicts After Multi-Child Policy: A Study of Dual-Career Families in China Following the Implementation of the Child Policy

Rebecca Lydia Muir (QMUL Centre for Primary Care), Using an interpretive policy analysis approach to understand the enactment and un/intended consequences of restrictive NHS IVF policies for people assigned female at birth trying to conceive. Wellcome Trust scholarship.

Ashraf Abumousa, The Accountability Patterns of Humanitarian Organizations in the Digital Age: A Critical Lens on Technocolonialism Discourse in Palestine. Islamic Development Bank scholarship.

 

Completed PhD Students

Dr Duncan Reynolds, A practice-based approach to trust: an ethnographic study on trusting in medical practices. QMUL Life Science Institute scholarship. Awarded 2023.

Dr Zhihui Bi, The Rigour and Relevance Debate in Chinese Business Schools: An Institutional Analysis’. China Scholarship Council. Awarded 2021.

 

 

Public Engagement

Professor Perrotta has significant experience collaborating with professional bodies, patient associations, and policy stakeholders in the field of fertility care to ensure that research findings are translated into actionable knowledge. This work bridges academic research and real-world practice, fostering dialogue across diverse audiences and contributing to improvements in healthcare policy, professional practice, and patient experience.

She has been invited to present her work at key professional conferences in the field of fertility care, including the Annual Conference of the British Infertility Counsellors Association (BICA, 2025), the Annual Symposium of the Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists (ARCS, 2024), and the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE, 2023 and 2024). She has been invited to present to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA, 2022 and 2024) and the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA, 2022). She is currently a member of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) working group tasked with developing a policy brief on funding for infertility treatments, aiming to inform future European policy on equitable access to fertility care.

An overview of her public and policy engagement work, including related documents, can be found here.

Policy briefs and research reports

Perrotta, M. (2024) ‘Fertility Treatment Add-On Use, Costs and Information Transparency: Patient Survey Findings', Remaking Fertility, Queen Mary University of London. Available at qmul.ac.uk/remaking-fertility/survey-results

Perrotta, M. (2024) ‘The market for hope: evidence challenges, commercial pressures and patient choices in fertility care’, Research Digest #4, Remaking Fertility, Queen Mary University of London. Available at qmul.ac.uk/remaking-fertility/research-digests/

Perrotta, M., Smietana, M. (2024). Building Bridges in Fertility Care: An Interactive Toolkit for Patient Associations, Clinics and Regulators, Remaking Fertility, Queen Mary University of London. Available at qmul.ac.uk/remaking-fertility/buildingbridgesproject/interactive-toolkit/

Perrotta, M., Smietana, M. (2024). Ensuring Cost Transparency and Fully Informed Decision-making: Addressing Key Needs, Priorities, and Challenges, Research Digest #3, Remaking Fertility, Queen Mary University of London. Available at https://remakingfertility.sbm.qmul.ac.uk/index.php/research-digests

Perrotta, M., Smietana, M. (2024). Information Provision on UK Fertility Clinic Websites. Addressing Key Needs, Priorities, and Challenges, Research Digest #2, Remaking Fertility, Queen Mary University of London. Available at https://remakingfertility.sbm.qmul.ac.uk/index.php/research-digests

Perrotta, M., Smietana, M. (2024). Evidence Gaps and Information Provision in Fertility Car. Addressing Key Needs, Priorities, and Challenges, Research Digest #1, Remaking Fertility, Queen Mary University of London. Available at https://remakingfertility.sbm.qmul.ac.uk/index.php/research-digests

Perrotta, M., Geampana, A. and Hamper, J. (2023). Sharing time-lapse videos with IVF patients: research insights to support best practice in fertility care, Research Insights #1, School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London. Available at qmul.ac.uk/busman/research/research-insights

Public and Policy Engagement Activities

Episode 8: Exploring fertility treatment add on use, information transparency and costs in the UK: insights from a patient survey – Guest at the Human Fertility Journal Podcast (07 July 2025).

Fertility Treatment Add-On Use, Costs and Information Transparency – Survey results online event organised with the Progress Education Trust (10 October 2024).

IVF Add-Ons: Building Bridges between Clinics, Regulators and Patients, public event organised with the Progress Education Trust (5 June 2024).

Production (with the support of the communication company Research Retold) of a video animation for fertility patients: “Should you watch videos of your IVF developing embryos?”. The animation was shared on Instagram by the Fertility Network UK in November 2023 (over 2500 visualisations).

Ensuring transparency and informed decision-making, online workshop with fertility professionals (16 November 2023) organised in collaboration with the Progress Educational Trust.

The quality of information on fertility clinic websites, online workshop with fertility professionals (2 November 2023) organised in collaboration with the Progress Educational Trust.

Launch of the Remaking Fertility initiative with associated social media campaign on Instagram and LinkedIn (October 2023)

When, where and how should patients receive time-lapse videos? Open consultation available on the project blog (February – July 2023)

How do patients receive time-lapse videos? Results of a social science research project, online workshop with fertility professionals (January 2023) organised in collaboration with the Progress Educational Trust.

Adding Up What We Know: A Global Perspective on Fertility Treatment Add-Ons, an online public event with international speakers (January 2022) organised in collaboration with the Progress Educational Trust. A film documenting this event is available on the PET YouTube channel;

The IVF Experience, four online workshops for IVF patients (November 2021);

Treatment add-ons and the Debate on Evidence, Workshop with IVF professionals (09/11/2021) organised in collaboration with the Progress Educational Trust (PET);

Production (with the support of the creative company Dragonfly) of three video animations discussing What are IVF Add-ons? What is Evidence in IVF? What is a positive experience in IVF? The videos were screened at the Modern Family Show (18/09/2021) and at the Online Summit of the Fertility Show (24-27/09/2021);

Accessibility of information and quality of evidence in the fertility sector, written evidence submitted by M. Perrotta and J. Hamper as response to the government consultation on Women’s Health Strategy (10/06/2021);

The IVF Experience and Positive Outcomes: A Social Science Perspective, online event (09/06/2021) in collaboration with the Royal College of Nursing Library & Archives;

Add-ons, evidence and positive outcomes in IVF: A social science perspective, online event (11/05/2021) with the participation of IVF patient advocates;

Time-lapse Imaging and the Debate on Evidence: A Social Science Perspective, Workshop with IVF professionals (22/04/2021) organised in collaboration with the Progress Educational Trust (PET);

Visions of Reproduction: The Making and Meaning of Reproductive Imaging, online public event in the Being Human Festival (12/10/2020) and in collaboration with The Fertility Podcast, which included a bonus episode on the event;

The Good, the True, and the Beautiful, participation in a documentary directed by Anwar Saab on the cultural aspects of scientific images and their production.

Grants

Professor Perrotta has successfully designed and led multiple research projects, securing over £1 million in competitive funding from prestigious funders, including the Wellcome Trust, the British Academy and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

2026-2031 National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Health Technology Assessment Grant, “PINC2: A pragmatic, multi-centre, parallel-arm, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised controlled trial to evaluate the clinical effectiveness, cost effectiveness and safety of exogenous luteal phase progesterone support in natural cycles in couples with unexplained infertility”, £205,919 (Co-Investigator. PI Dr Priya Bhide, total value of the project £3 millions).

2024-2025 Queen Mary Secondment Scheme, £16,301 (Host applicant), Progress Educational Trust secondment for improving cost transparency in UK fertility care.

2024-2025 Queen Mary Impact Fund Award for the project “Enhancing the Quality of Information in fertility care”, £19,926 (Principal investigator).

2023-2024 Queen Mary Impact Fund Award for the project “Addressing misinformation in fertility care”, £65,350 (Principal investigator).

2023-2024 IHSS Large Grant Seed-corn Award for the project “Evidence-based medicine in the age of big data: the AI turn in fertility care”, £4,980 (Principal investigator).

June 2023 Talent and Stabilization funding from Research England, £3,500 (Principal investigator).

2023-2024 British Academy Innovation Fellowship for the project “Building bridges between fertility patients, clinics and regulators: A collaborative approach”, £81,983 (Principal investigator).

2019-23 Wellcome Trust Research Enrichment grant for a programme of public engagement related to the project “Remaking the Human Body: Biomedical Imaging Technologies, Professional and Lay Visions”, £142,290 (Principal investigator).

2016-2023 Wellcome Trust Investigator Award with the project “Remaking the Human Body: Biomedical Imaging Technologies, Professional and Lay Visions”, £507,583 (Principal Investigator).

2017-2022 PhD studentship by the Life Sciences Institute (2015), with the project “Accelerating translational research in Primary care: An East London study and beyond” in collaboration with the William Harvey Research Institute, approximately £50,000 (Co-Investigator).

2015 “Biomedicine and STS: emerging themes”, 3rd STS Italia Summer School, 15th – 19th September 2015, Padova. Application for the funding scheme “International Summer & Winter School di Ateneo” 2015, University of Padova in collaboration with Professor Federico Neresini, € 9,380 (Co-Investigator).

 

Back to top