Samantha Vanderslott

Samantha Vanderslott leads the Vaccines and Society Unit (VAS), hosted by the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford. She is a health sociologist and Associate Professor working on topics at the intersection of health and society.

Samantha has over 30 peer-reviewed publications (including in journals such as Social Science and Medicine, Lancet Public Health, BMJ Global health, and Sociology of Health and Illness). She has given policy advice to various governments and international bodies, and frequently appears on media discussing public health issues. Her research currently focuses on public attitudes and decisions on vaccination, particularly in relation to pro-vaccination behaviours and vaccine acceptance. Prior, she worked on the study of neglect in attention on public health issues, summarised in her book Attention and Responsibility in Global Health: The Currency of Neglect, for which she conducted field work in Brazil and China.

She primarily draws on Science and Technology Studies, Medical Anthropology, Public Policy, and Political Economy in her work. Samantha holds a PhD from UCL (University College London) and has held visiting positions at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Brocher Foundation in Geneva.