Anna Wood

I’m Anna Wood and I’m a first year PhD student in Sociocultural Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. I study the intersections of culture, gender, race, technology, and the biopolitics of reproductive and sexual health. My doctoral research investigates how assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) stratify reproductive labor vis-à-vis the global surrogacy industry. I seek to understand how transnational surrogacy markets affect surrogates’ lives, including their own reproductive, economic, and social trajectories.  

In my honors Anthropology thesis at Middlebury College, I ethnographically traced the complicated reasons college students use hormonal contraceptives. My research thus far has employed medical anthropology and feminist science & technology studies to explore how reproductive technologies are used to suppress and outsource the uterus, illuminating the constraints of female agency under regimes of patriarchy. Prior to my doctoral studies, I served as a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs, where I conducted a series of community engaged research projects across Northern California’s public sector.