Meet the Scholar: Snapshots of Intellectual Journeys

Marcia C. Inhorn – Yale University

Marcia C. Inhorn, PhD, MPH, is the William K. Lanman, Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs in the Department of Anthropology and The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University, where she serves as Chair of the Council on Middle East Studies. A specialist on Middle Eastern gender, religion, and reproductive health issues, Inhorn has conducted research on the social impact of infertility and assisted reproductive technologies in Egypt, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, and Arab America over the past 30 years. She is the author of six books on the subject, including Quest for Conception: Gender, Infertility, and Egyptian Medical Traditions (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994), Infertility and Patriarchy: The Cultural Politics of Gender and Family Life in Egypt (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), Local Babies, Global Science: Gender, Religion and In Vitro Fertilization in Egypt (Routledge, 2003), The New Arab Man: Emergent Masculinities, Technologies and Islam in the Middle East (Princeton University Press, 2012), Cosmopolitan Conceptions: IVF Sojourns in Global Dubai (Duke University Press, 2015), and her most recent, America’s Arab Refugees: Vulnerability and Health on the Margins (Stanford University Press, 2018). She is also the (co)editor of thirteen books, the founding editor of the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies (JMEWS), co-editor of Reproductive BioMedicine and Society Online (RBMS), andco-editor of the Berghahn Book series on “Fertility, Reproduction, and Sexuality.” She has received numerous awards for her books and scholarship, including the American Anthropological Association’s Robert B. Textor and Family Prize for excellence in anticipatory anthropology, the AAA’s Eileen Basker and Diana Forsythe Prizes for outstanding anthropological research in gender, health, and biomedical technology, the JMEWS Book Award in Middle East gender studies, and the Middle East Distinguished Scholar award from the AAA’s Middle East Section. Inhorn is Past President of the Society for Medical Anthropology, and is co-PI with Prof. Sarah Franklin (University of Cambridge) on a Wellcome Trust grant entitled “Changing (In)Fertilties.” Most recently, she completed a US National Science Foundation supported study of oocyte cryopreservation (egg freezing) for fertility preservation.