Bernadette Blashill

Research Interests: Care and Caregiving, Cultural and Political Sociology, Law and Society, Mental Health, Social Policy

Bernadette Blashill is a doctoral student in Sociology at Harvard University. Her research investigates why and how people care for one another, and what happens when caring takes a toll. She examines how helping professionals—such as immigration attorneys and cancer caregivers—understand and respond to the emotional, moral, and structural demands of their work, with a focus on secondary trauma, moral distress, and burnout. This work is motivated by a commitment to informing social policy that better supports these professionals and, in turn, the quality of care they provide to vulnerable communities. Her research is generously supported by the National Science Foundation, the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession, and the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University.

Prior to graduate school, she worked in immigration and disability law in the Bay Area for three years, and later served as a Policy and Research Analyst in educational equity at Catalyst California. She also contributed to two UC Berkeley studies investigating economic precarity, race, and the social impact of COVID-19 in California.

She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2019 with a B.A. in Sociology with high honors. In her free time, she loves reading, dancing, playing music, and spending time with her loved ones.

Previous Degrees:
B.A. in Sociology with High Honors, University of California, Berkeley, 2019