I’m a medical anthropologist and genetic counselor whose work examines how patients, families, and clinicians navigate cancer care amid the promises and failures of precision medicine. My research grows out of dual training in the JHU–NIH Genetic Counseling Program and experiences as a BRCA+ patient and caregiver, where I encountered the indeterminacies of genomics in practice. My dissertation, Hope on Trial: Care, Risk, and Accompaniment in Precision Medicine, is an ethnography of oncology and genetic counseling at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Following the brief revival of the Cancer Moonshot, it shows how the fragile institutional authority of precision oncology rests on everyday labors of care: the emotional, relational, and bureaucratic work through which clinicians sustain clinical trials as well as patients’ hopes in moments when medicine falls short. I also attend to health equity in genomics, and I’ve published research on LGBTQ+ cancer disparities in Journal of Genetic Counseling; co-authored a forthcoming gender inclusivity practice resource for the National Society of Genetic Counselors; and spoken at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Roundtable on Equity in Genomics. Prior to doctoral study, I earned an MFA in Creative Writing from University of Notre Dame. I'm currently a contributing writer at Synapsis: A Health Humanities Journal, and I serve as editor-in-chief at Tendon Magazine and assistant poetry editor at Asymptote Journal.

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles:

Zayhowski, K., Roth, S., Hubert, M., Martin, M., Blumen, K., Bland, H., McQuaid, S., & Mittendorf, K. (2025). Navigating sexual orientation and gender identity data privacy concerns in United States genetics practices. Journal of Genetic Counseling.

Roth, S., Owczarzak, J., Baker, K., Davidson, H., & Jamal, L. (2024). Transgender and gender diverse experiences of hereditary cancer care: “It's gender. It's cancer risk...it's everything.” Journal of Genetic Counseling.

Roth, S. The Risk Clinic: Care, Kinship, and Futures in Oncology. Under review.

Selected Public Scholarship:

Roth, Sarah. “Thresholds of the Body: Diagnosis and Desire in Dying for Sex and All Fours.” Synapsis: A Health Humanities Journal. Roth, Sarah. “Discussing Gender Inclusive Terminology and Gender-Affirming Hereditary Cancer Care.” DNA Dialogues. Podcast audio, May 31, 2024.

Roth, Sarah. “Review: Standing in the Forest of Being Alive.” Synapsis: A Health Humanities Journal. Roth, Sarah. “Grief Work: Labor, Emotion, and Cutting through Loss in Severance.” Exertions: Open Access Forum of the Society for the Anthropology of Work.

Roth, Sarah. "Rethinking Pink: Breast Cancer Activism in the 20th Century." Synapsis: A Health Humanities Journal.

Selected Creative Writing:

2025 Roth, Sarah. Inheritances. Vinegar Press, forthcoming.
2025 Roth, Sarah. “Between Kingdoms.” Thimble, September 2025.
2025 Roth, Sarah. “No Evidence of Disease.” Wildfire, June 2025. The Body Issue.
2023 Roth, Sarah. "Coping." Gastropoda, Mar. 2023. Nominated for Best of the Net.
2019 Roth, Sarah. "Fragments of Diagnosis." The Notre Dame Review, no. 48, 2019.
2017 Roth, Sarah. “Night Flights.” Hot Metal Bridge, no. 24. Nominated for Pushcart Prize.