Dr Robert Pralat

Dr Robert Pralat is a research associate at The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care. Previously, he was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of Sociology where he was part of the Reproductive Sociology Research Group (ReproSoc) and the medical sociology subject manager on the MPhil in Health, Medicine and Society.

Most of Robert’s research to date has examined how cultural changes and advances in medicine shape people’s perceptions about parenthood, with a focus on sexual minorities and men living with HIV. This work has specifically attended to how people imagine their futures and how they approach the prospect of having – or not having – children. More recently, Robert’s research has explored cultures and systems of medicine, focusing on ethical dilemmas and new technologies in clinical practice and the organisation of healthcare.

Key publications

Pralat R (2025) Reproductive imaginations: Process versus outcome in queer family making in Britain. In: Franklin S and Inhorn MC (eds) The New Reproductive Order: Technology, Fertility, and Social Change around the Globe. New York: NYU Press, pp. 86–102.

Pralat R, Anderson J, Burns F and Barber TJ (2024) Asked to be a sperm donor: Disclosure dilemmas of gay men living with HIV. Culture, Health & Sexuality 26(8): 997–1011.

Pralat R, Burns F, Anderson J and Barber TJ (2021) Can HIV-positive gay men become parents? How men living with HIV and HIV clinicians talk about the possibility of having children. Sociology of Health & Illness 43(2): 281–298.

Pralat R, Anderson J, Burns F, Yarrow E and Barber TJ (2021) Discussing parenthood with gay men diagnosed with HIV: A qualitative study of patient and healthcare practitioner perspectives. BMC Public Health 21: 2300.

Pralat R (2021) Sexual identities and reproductive orientations: Coming out as wanting (or not wanting) to have children. Sexualities 24(1–2): 276–294.

Pralat R (2020) Parenthood as intended: Reproductive responsibility, moral judgements and having children ‘by accident’. The Sociological Review 68(1): 161–176.

Pralat R (2018) More natural does not equal more normal: Lesbian, gay, and bisexual people’s views about different pathways to parenthood. Journal of Family Issues 39(18): 4179–4203.

Pralat R (2016) Between future families and families of origin: Talking about gay parenthood across generations. In: Pooley S and Qureshi K (eds) Parenthood Between Generations: Transforming Reproductive Cultures. Oxford: Berghahn Books, pp. 43–64.

Pralat R (2015) Repro-sexual intersections: Sperm donation, HIV prevention and the public interest in semen. Reproductive Biomedicine Online 30(3): 211–219.