Hay’s research interests focus on medicine and the environment, women and gender, and activism and public policy. She has published articles examining gender, citizenship, and religious activism in relation to the Love Canal chemical disaster, a “discovery” of over 22,000 tons of toxic chemicals buried under the homes and schools of Niagara Falls, New York. The University of Rochester Press has sent her book manuscript, Recipe for Disaster: Chemical Wastes, Community Activists, and Public Health at Love Canal, out for external review.