Anthony Ryan Hatch, Ph.D., is a sociologist and Professor and Chair of Science in Society at Wesleyan University with affiliations in the Department of African American Studies, College of the Environment, and Department of Sociology. He is the author of Silent Cells: The Secret Drugging of Captive America (Minnesota, 2019) and Blood Sugar: Racial Pharmacology and Food Justice in Black America (Minnesota, 2016). He earned his A.B. in Philosophy from Dartmouth College and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Maryland at College Park as part of the Minority Fellowship Program (MFP, cohort 31) sponsored by the American Sociological Association and the National Institute of Mental Health (2004-2007). Dr. Hatch held a post-doctoral fellowship in HIV/AIDS, substance use, and mental health research in at the Morehouse School of Medicine (2009-2011).
Dr. Hatch lectures widely on health systems, medical technology, and social inequalities, appearing in the PBS documentary Blood Sugar Rising. He received the 2022 Robin W. Williams Distinguished Lecturer in the Eastern Sociological Society and served as the 2023 William Allan Neilson Chair of Research Professor at Smith College. He is a fellow The Hastings Center and is a member of the Health and Social Equity Collective at King’s College London and the Racial Democracy, Crime, and Justice Network at Rutgers University.
Dr. Hatch is a member of a National Academy of Medicine ad hoc committee creating a governance framework for equity in emerging technologies in health and medicine. Dr. Hatch serves on several national and international scientific advisory boards including the National Advisory Committee for the Opioid Industry Documents Archive, the Wellcome Trust Medical Humanities Discovery Advisory Group, the Community Development Community Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He is on the editorial boards of Science, Technology & Human Values and the Social History of Alcohol and Drugs.
At Wesleyan, Dr. Hatch is the founding director of Black Box Labs, an undergraduate research and training laboratory that offers students training in qualitative research methods aligned with science and technology studies and the opportunity to collaborate with faculty on social research. Dr. Hatch has been a leader in the Sustainability & Environmental Justice Pedagogical Initiative and Course Cluster, IDEAS, Center for Prison Education, Creative Campus Initiative, and the Embodying Antiracism Initiative. He is the faculty advisor for the student-run Espwesso Cafe and serves on the executive board of the Administrators and Faculty of Color Alliance.