Research Interests

Queer and feminist Science & Technology Studies, biopolitics and HIV/AIDS, sociology of risk and quantification, gender & queer theory, intersection of psychoanalysis and critical sexualities studies

Biography

Dr. Aaron Norton is a core faculty member in the Ph.D. Program in Human Sexuality at CIIS and a practicing Associate Marriage and Family Therapist.

Aaron received his Ph.D. in social psychology from UC Davis in 2014, where they also spent two years as the Graduate Fellow for the Center for Science and Innovation Studies and the Program in Science and Technology Studies. After graduating, he spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow with the Sexualities Project at Northwestern (SPAN), and another year and a half as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Sociology and Gender & Sexuality Studies. Aaron's main areas of interest include gender and sexuality studies, science & technology studies, social studies of risk and quantification, and the biopolitics of HIV-prevention. For example, his dissertation traced the circulation of statistical claims relating male circumcision and HIV-risk to consider the science and ethics of male circumcision's emergence as an HIV-risk prevention strategy. In addition, Aaron's past research has drawn on both quantitative and qualitative approaches to the study of gender and sexuality, and includes publications on such topics as attitudes toward transgender people; human chimerism, kinship, and trans-subjectivity.

In 2025, Aaron completed an M.A. in Integral Counseling Psychology from CIIS, and maintains an active psychotherapy practice through the Center for Mindful Psychotherapy where he integrates insights from relational psychoanalytic theory and critical sexualities studies in his practice.

Education

M.A. in Integral Counseling Psychology, CIIS, 2025

Ph.D. in Psychology, UC Davis, 2014

M.A. in Psychology, UC Davis, 2007

B.A. in Psychology with a concentration in French, St. Mary's College of Maryland, 2001

Awards & Distinctions

Sexualities Project at Northwestern Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2014-2016

Finalist, University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2013

Psychology Department Dissertation Fellowship, UC Davis, 2012

Graduate Student Fellowship, Sociology Department, UC San Diego, 2007-2008

Rik and Florence Henrikson Fellowship, Science Studies, UC San Diego, 2007-2008

Post-Baccalaureate Intramural Research Training Fellowship, NIH, 2001-2002

Phi Beta Kappa, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 2000

Courses

Introduction to Human Sexuality

Gender & Queer Theory

Core Concept Comprehensive Exam

Literature Review Comprehensive Exam

Publications

Norton, A.T. (2017). Foreskin and the molecular politics of risk. Social Studies of Science, 47(5), 655-680.

Norton, A.T. (2013). Surveying risk subjects: Public health surveys as instruments of biomedicalization. BioSocieties, 8, 265-288.

Norton, A.T., & Herek, G.M. (2013). Heterosexuals' attitudes toward transgender people: Findings from a national probability sample of U.S. adults. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 68, 738-753.

Herek, G.M., Norton, A.T., Allen, T.J., & Sims, C.L. (2010). 

Demographic, psychological, and social characteristics of self-identified lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults in a U.S. probability sample. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 7, 176-200.

Norton, A.T. & Zehner, O. (2008). Which half is mommy?: Tetragametic chimerism and trans-subjectivity. Women Studies Quarterly, 36(3/4), 106-125.

Yamashita, T., Hashiramoto, A., Haluzik, M., Mizukami, H., Beck, S., Norton, A.T., ... , & Proia, R.L. (2003). 

Enhanced insulin sensitivity in mice lacking ganglioside GM3. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(6), 3445-3449.