Our Team
Sydney Calkin
I am the Primary Investigator of PharmaSMaSH. I am a Reader (Associate Professor) in Geography in the School of Society and Environment at Queen Mary University of London. My work addresses questions at the intersection of gender, political geography and reproductive technology.
From 2016-2024, I studied medication abortion pills and their cross-border journeys. I focused especially on the countries where abortion is illegal, and explored how medication abortion pills changed the possibilities for obtaining safe abortion outside of the law. In 2023, I published a book on this research: Abortion Pills Go Global: Reproductive Freedom Across Borders (University of California Press).
From 2024-2029, I lead the PharmaSMaSH project building themes in my previous work – like transnational medicine activism and informal pharmaceutical flows – extending this line of research beyond abortion pills, to include HIV PrEP and gender-affirming hormones. With a team of postdoctoral researchers, we explore how people self-manage their health using pharmaceuticals they buy online, especially when the treatments they want are stigmatized or illegal locally. This work was awarded an ERC Starting Grant and is currently funded by the UKRI Horizon Guarantee.
From 2026-2028, I will undertake a new piece of work on the geography of CRISPR gene-editing technology in reproductive settings. I am interested in how this technology-in-the-making will result in the emergence of cross-border reproductive economies and reproductive travel. This work is supported by a Phillip Leverhulme Prize, awarded 2025.
Tate Morgan
I began as a Postdoctoral Research Associate on the PharmaSMaSH project at Queen Mary University of London in June 2025, following the completion of my PhD in Sociology at the Australian National University (ANU) and a research appointment at the ANU School of Regulation and Global Governance. I am a trans scholar with research interests operating at the intersections of health sociology, gender studies, and feminist science and technology studies.
Alongside my academic work I have a decade of experience in trans communities in Australia, and I have worked professionally in the NGO sector and in government, including as Assistant Director in the ACT Government Office of LGBTIQA+ Affairs. In these roles I have contributed to numerous legislative and regulatory reforms, including on gender recognition, intersex healthcare, and human rights protections.
In my work as part of the PharmaSMaSH project, I focus on DIY hormone use among trans people, exploring how trans people self-manage their health and hormone needs in the absence of support from institutional medicine, and how they access or make hormone pharmaceutical products.
Alvaro Martinez Lacabe
I joined Queen Mary University of London in January 2025 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate on the PharmaSMaSH project, following several years of teaching and research appointments at institutions including the Open University, Birkbeck (University of London), the University of York and the University of Sussex.
Trained in the humanities (history and cultural studies), I work across medical sociology, medical anthropology, queer studies, critical public health and science and technology studies (STS) to examine how biomedical technologies, sexual health and activist networks shape one another. My research focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention, the digital and transnational circulation of pharmaceuticals, and the self-managed health practices of men who have sex with men. I have explored the use of PrEP and other antiretrovirals and the emergence of activist therapeutic communities.
Within PharmaSMaSH, I lead research on antiretrovirals for HIV prevention, tracing how PrEP users and activist therapeutic communities engage with digital platforms and transnational networks, as well as with healthcare policies.