Marcia C. Inhorn
Introduction '''Marcia Claire Inhorn''' is a medical anthropologist and William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at Yale University where she is Chair of the Council on Middle East Studies. A specialist on Middle Eastern gender and health issues, Inhorn conducts research on the social impact of infertility and assisted reproductive technologies in Egypt, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, and Arab America. She has also completed a major study of egg freezing in the United States, described in her book ''Motherhood on Ice: The Mating Gap and Why Women Freeze Their Eggs.'' Inhorn has published 21 books and more than 200 articles and book chapters.Before joining the Yale faculty in 2008, Inhorn was a professor of medical anthropology at the University of Michigan and director of the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies. Inhorn was president of the Society for Medical Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association.
Research === Egypt ===Inhorn’s works within feminist science and technology studies (STS), Middle East gender studies (including masculinity studies), and the anthropology of reproduction. She was the first anthropologist to study infertility and assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) outside of the West, following the globalization of IVF to Egypt. Working in Egypt during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, she was able to document the significant social, religious, kinship, and gender ramifications of infertility and its treatment, as well as the impact that IVF had on both the medical system and gender relations in the country. In the decade between 1993-2003, she published three books called ''Quest for Conception'' (1994), ''Infertility and Patriarchy'' (1996), and ''Local Babies, Global Science'' (2003). These books could be described, respectively, as a classic medical anthropological ethnography, a gender studies ethnography, and an STS ethnography of the globalization of IVF into the Muslim Middle East.Throughout these volumes, Inhorn charts Egyptian social and cultural understandings of infertility as a problem of personhood, marriage, kinship, and community life, while explaining how treatment options such as IVF are fundamentally shaped by local religious moralities. In the final book, based on research in Cairo’s IVF clinics, she argues that numerous “arenas of constraint” — social, structural, ideological, and practical — limit and sometimes curtail access to IVF, even among elite Egyptian couples who engage in transnational quests to create a “baby of the tubes.” These books have won several medical anthropology and feminist awards, including the American Anthropological Association’s Diana Forsythe Prize for outstanding feminist anthropological research on work, science, technology, and biomedicine, and the Society for Medical Anthropology’s Eileen Basker Memorial Prize for the most significant contribution to anthropological scholarship on gender and health.=== Lebanon ===Since 2003, Inhorn has undertaken three Middle Eastern research projects outside of Egypt. All have been funded by the National Science Foundation’s Cultural Anthropology and Science, Technology, and Society programs, as well as the U.S. Department of Education's Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad program. Her book, ''The New Arab Man: Emergent Masculinities, Technologies, and Islam in the Middle East'' (Princeton University Press, 2012), is the culmination of one of these projects, based in Lebanon, and reflects her intellectual engagements in Middle East gender studies. Indeed, ''The New Arab Man'' is the first anthropological ethnography devoted to the exploration of Arab masculinity in the 21st century. It is also the only book focusing on male infertility and men’s uses of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a variant of IVF designed to overcome this “hidden” male reproductive health problem. In ''The New Arab Man'', Inhorn interrogates Raewyn Connell’s theory of “hegemonic masculinity,” suggesting that this concept, when applied to the Middle East, only serves to reinforce static dualisms and neo-Orientalist stereotypes. Inspired by the work of Raymond Williams, she offers a new concept of “emergent masculinities” as a way to encapsulate change over the male life course, between generations, and throughout social history, as men enact transformative events such as the 2011 Arab uprisings. As Inhorn argues in this book, many Middle Eastern men today are engaged in a self-conscious critique of local gender norms, attempting to unseat forms of patriarchy in the process. These men, who perhaps represent the “silent majority,” share their hopes, dreams, and desires in the book, which is filled with ethnographic stories of men’s lives, often in conflict-ridden settings. ''The New Arab Man'' based on research conducted with more than 300 Arab men, including Sunni and Shia Muslims, Christians, and Druze, from nearly a dozen Middle Eastern countries. ''The New Arab Man'' received the 2014 JMEWS Book Award from the Association of Middle East Women’s Studies. In 2015, it received the 2015 Robert B. Textor and Family Prize for Excellence in Anticipatory Anthropology, an award given annually by the American Anthropological Association.=== United Arab Emirates ===Middle East’s most “global city” and a new medical tourism hub. Her book ''Cosmopolitan Conceptions: IVF Sojourns in Global Dubai'' (Duke University Press, 2015), explores the stories of infertile couples from fifty countries and five continents, all of whom have attempted to seek assisted conception in Dubai’s emergent IVF sector. The increasing global magnitude of travel to new cosmopolitan “reprohubs” such as Dubai is a reflection of the fact that IVF services are either absent, inaccessible, illegal, expensive, or harmful in many of the world’s nations, particularly in the global South. As the first ethnographic study of so-called “reproductive tourism,” ''Cosmopolitan Conceptions'' challenges this term as an inappropriate descriptor for couples’ painful and tortuous IVF journeys across international borders. Instead, ''Cosmopolitan Conceptions'' adopts the term “reprotravel” to represent these journeys—part of a new conceptual “reprolexicon” introduced in the book and inspired by recent developments in globalization theory. Cosmopolitan Conceptions ends with an activist agenda, arguing for alternative pathways to parenthood; support for the infertile, especially infertile women; and provision of safe, low-cost IVF services, particularly in the global South.=== Arab America ===Inhorn's most recent book is ''America’s Arab Refugees: Vulnerability and Health on the Margins'' (Stanford University Press, 2018), based on a five-year ethnographic study carried out in “Arab Detroit,” Michigan, the so-called “capital” of Arab America. Set against the backdrop of America’s stratified healthcare system and Detroit’s status as the poorest big city in America, ''America’s Arab Refugees'' provides the first in-depth analysis of the post-war health problems and struggles of infertile Arab refugees as they attempt to make new lives and new families in America. Forwarding the concept of “reproductive exile,” Inhorn examines the ways in which Arab refugees, particularly from the country of Iraq, have been made infertile by the toxic legacies of American military intervention. Yet, after being forced to flee, they are exiled from America’s costly healthcare system by poverty and reproductive racism. The book also interrogates the widespread anti-Arab/anti-Muslim sentiment that has been felt in the United States since 9/11, but that has been significantly exacerbated by the contemporary political climate and imposition of the “Muslim ban.” To examine these new forms of racism, ''America’s Arab Refugees'' draws inspiration from intersectionality theory as developed by US Black feminist scholars. One chapter of the book compares the interlocking and multiplicative forms of discrimination faced by both Arab and Black populations living side by side on the margins of Detroit. ''America’s Arab Refugees'' thus represents the first attempt to apply intersectionality theory to the study of Arab lives in the US, showing that this theoretical approach has great utility in interrogating axes of oppression among marginalized immigrant and refugee communities. Ultimately, Inhorn’s book interrogates the health costs of war, the health inequities and structural vulnerabilities faced by Muslim refugees in this country, and the US government’s moral duty to assist those whose lives it has destroyed through its ongoing wars in the Middle East.=== United States ===Inhorn’s most recent scholarly project is based solely in the US and supported by the US National Science Foundation. It focuses on oocyte cryopreservation (egg freezing), which is increasingly being used by women around the world to preserve and extend their fertility. Experimentally developed for women facing medical conditions such as cancer, the technology has moved into IVF clinics since 2012, where it is being used by otherwise healthy women. Although most of the feminist and media commentary about egg freezing focuses on women’s career ambitions, in-depth interviews show a quite different story about women’s motivations and experiences. Inhorn’s ethnographic research with 150 women who froze their eggs shows that egg freezing is largely about partnership problems among highly educated professional women who are hoping for the “three P’s” of partnership, pregnancy, and parenthood. However, these women lack the “three E’s”—namely, men who are eligible, educated, and equal. This “mating gap” reflects growing but little-discussed gender imbalances in higher education, not only in America, but in more than 60 percent of the world’s nations. Educated women’s inability to form stable reproductive relationships is leading to the global egg freezing turn. Inhorn’s study has been featured in multiple media outlets, including NPR, CNN, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, the Huffington Post, and Jezebel. Inhorn has also appeared in multiple podcasts, radio talk shows, and documentary films, such as Netflix’s “Explained” feature on “Fertility.”
Editorships Inhorn is the founding editor of the ''Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies'' (JMEWS). She is also Co-Editor in Chief of Reproductive BioMedicine and Society, Associate editor for population and health of the journal ''Global Public Health'', and Co-editor of the "Fertility, Reproduction, and Sexuality" series at Berghahn Books. She is also editor or co-editor of fourteen volumes on medical anthropology, gender, reproduction, and the Middle East.
Publications ===Books===* Inhorn, Marcia C. (2023). ''Motherhood on Ice: The Mating Gap and Why Women Freeze Their Eggs.'' New York: NYU Press. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2018). ''America’s Arab Refugees: Vulnerability and Health on the Margins''. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2015). ''Cosmopolitan Conceptions: IVF Sojourns in Global Dubai''. Duke University Press. * * . Winner of the Diana Forsythe Prize for Outstanding Feminist Anthropological Research on Work, Science, and Technology, including Biomedicine; Society for the Anthropology of Work and The Committee on the Anthropology of Science, Technology, and Computing (CASTAC), American Anthropological Association, 2007* * . Winner of the Eileen Basker Prize for Outstanding Research on Gender and Health, Society for Medical Anthropology, American Anthropological Association, 1995.===Edited volumes===* ''Franklin, Sarah B.; Inhorn, Marcia C. (2025) The New Reproductive Order: Changing In-Fertilities across the Globe. New York, NY: NYU Press, in press. ''* ''Isidoros, Konstantina; Inhorn, Marcia C. (2022) Arab Masculinities: Anthropological Reconceptions in Precarious Times. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ''* ''Inhorn, Marcia C.; Volk,  Lucia Volk, (2021) Un-Settling Middle Eastern Refugees: Regimes of Exclusion and Inclusion in the Middle East, Europe, and North America. New York, NY: Berghahn. ''* ''Inhorn, Marcia C.; Smith-Hefner, Nancy. (2021) Waithood: Gender, Education, and Global Delays in Marriage and Childbearing. New York, NY: Berghahn Books. ''* ''Inhorn, Marcia C.; Naguib, Nefissa (2018). Reconceiving Muslim Men: Love and Marriage, Family and Care in Precarious Times. New York, NY: Berghahn Books.'' * * * * * * Hahn, Robert A.; Marcia C. Inhorn; eds. (2009). ''Anthropology and Public Health: Bridging Differences in Culture and Society''. Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press. * * * Inhorn, Marcia C.; Balen, Frank van; ed. (2002). ''Infertility Around the Globe: New Thinking on Childlessness, Gender, and Reproductive Technologies''. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Winner of Council on Anthropology and Reproduction, Society for Medical Anthropology, Book Prize for “Most Notable Recent Edited Collection"). * ===Selected book chapters===* '''Inhorn, Marcia C.''' (2023) “Medical Cosmopolitanism in Moral Worlds: Aspirations and Stratifications in Global Quests for Conception.” Invited Chapter in ''Arc of Interference: Medical Anthropology for Worlds on Edge,'' eds. Joao Biehl and Vincanne Adams, pp. 187-209.Durham, NC: Duke University Press. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2021) “Gender, Sperm Troubles, and Assisted Reproductive Technologies.” ''Why Gender?,'' ed. Jude Browne, pp. 126-143.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2021) “America’s Wars and Iraqis’ Lives: Refugee Vulnerabilities and Regimes of Exclusion in the United States.” In ''Un-Settling Middle Eastern Refugees: Regimes of Exclusion and Inclusion in the Middle East, Europe, and North America.'' Eds. Marcia C. Inhorn and Lucia Volk, pp. 163-179.New York: Berghahn Books. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2021) “Egg Freezing Activists: Extending Reproductive Futures to Cancer Patients, Single and Minority Women, and Transgender Men in America.” In ''Birthing Techno-Sapiens: Human-Technology Co-Evolution and the Future of Reproduction,'' ed. Robbie Davis-Floyd, pp. 47-59.New York: Routledge. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2020) “Two ‘Quiet’ Reproductive Revolutions: Islam, Gender, and Fertility.” In ''Routledge Handbook of Islam and Gender,'' ed. Justine Howe, pp. 343-357.New York: Routledge. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2020) “The Feminist Ethnography of Untested Assumptions: Traveling with IVF across the Middle East.” In ''Gender, Considered: Feminist Reflections Across the Social Sciences,'' eds. Sarah Fenstermaker and Abigail Stewart, pp. 297-332.New York: Palgrave MacMillan. * Mazzarino, Andrea, Marcia C. Inhorn, and Catherine Lutz (2019) “Introduction: The Health Consequences of War.” In War and Health: The Medical Consequences of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, eds. Catherine Lutz and Andrea Mazzarino, pp. 1–37.New York University Press. * Inhorn, Marcia C., Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli, Soraya Tremayne, and Zeynep B. Gurtin (2019) “Kinship and Assisted Reproductive Technologies: A Middle Eastern Comparison.” In The Cambridge Handbook of Kinship, ed. Sandra Bamford, pp. 507–530.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2018) “Fertility, Demography, and Masculinities in Arab Families: From 1950 to 2015 and Beyond.” Invited Chapter in Arab Family Studies: Critical Reviews, ed. Suad Joseph, pp. 449–466.Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2017) “Wanted Babies, Excess Fetuses: The Middle East’s In Vitro Fertilization, High-order Multiple Pregnancy, Fetal Reduction Nexus.” In Abortion Pills, Test Tube Babies, and Sex Toys: Emerging Sexual and Reproductive Technologies in the Middle East and North Africa, eds. L. L. Wynn and Angel Foster, pp. 99–111.Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2016) “Multiculturalism in Muslim America? The Case of Health Disparities and Discrimination in “Arab Detroit,” Michigan. Invited Chapter in New Horizons of Muslim Diaspora in North America and Europe, ed. Moha Ennaji, pp. 177–187.London: Palgrave MacMillan. * Bharadwaj, Aditya, and Marcia C. Inhorn (2015) “Conceiving Life and Death: Stem Cell Technologies and Assisted Conception in India and the Middle East.” In The Anthropology of Living and Dying, eds. Clara Han and Veena Das, pp. 67–82.New York: Wiley-Blackwell. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2014) “New Arab Fatherhood: Emergent Masculinities, Male Infertility, and Assisted Reproduction.” In  Globalized Fatherhood, eds. Marcia C. Inhorn, Wendy Chavkin, and Jose-Alberto Navarro, pp. 243–263.New York: Berghahn Books. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2012) “Diasporic Dreaming: Return Reproductive Tourism to the Middle East.” In Transforming Ethnographic Knowledge, eds. Kamari Clarke and Rebecca Hardin, pp. 113–133.Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. * Inhorn, Marcia. C., and Emily Wentzell (2012) “Medical Anthropology at the Intersections.” In Medical Anthropology at the Intersections: Histories, Activisms, Futures, eds. Marcia C. Inhorn and Emily Wentzell, pp. 1–20.Durham: Duke University Press. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2012) "Globalization and Gametes: Reproductive Tourism, Islamic Bioethics, and Middle Eastern Modernity." In Reproductive Technologies as Global Form: Ethnographies of Knowledge, Practices, and Transnational Encounters, eds. WMichi Knecht, Maren Klotz, and Stefan Beck, Berlin: Campus Verlag. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2010) "’Assisted’ Reproduction in Global Dubai: Reproductive Tourists and Their Helpers." In Globalized Motherhood, eds. Wendy Chavkin and JaneMaree Maher, pp. 180-202.New York: Routledge Press. * Inhorn, Marcia C., and Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli (2010) "Male Infertility, Chronicity, and the Plight of Palestinian Men in Israel and Lebanon," in Chronic Conditions, Fluid States: Globalization and the Anthropology of Illness, eds. Lenore Manderson and Carolyn Smith-Morris, pp. 77–95.New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. * Birenbaum-Carmeli, Daphna, and Marcia C. Inhorn (2009) "Introduction: Assisting Reproduction, Testing Genes: Global Encounters with New Biotechnologies." In Assisting Reproduction, Testing Genes: Global Encounters with New Biotechnologies, eds. Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli and Marcia C. Inhorn, pp. 1–26.New York: Berghahn Books. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2009) "Middle Eastern Masculinities in the Age of Assisted Reproductive Technologies." In Assisting Reproduction, Testing Genes: Global Encounters with New Biotechnologies, eds. Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli and Marcia C. Inhorn, pp. 86–110.New York: Berghahn Books. * Inhorn, Marcia C., Tjørnhøj-Thomsen, Tine, Goldberg, Helene, and Maruska La Cour Mosegaard (2009)"Introduction—The Second Sex in Reproduction? Men, Sexuality, and Masculinity." In Reconceiving the Second Sex: Men, Masculinity, and Reproduction, eds. Marcia C. Inhorn, Tine Tjørnhøj-Thomsen, Helene Goldberg, and Maruska La Cour Mosegaard, pp. 1–17.New York: Berghahn Books. * Inhorn, Marcia C., Rosario Ceballo, and Robert Nachtigall (2009) "Marginalized, Invisible, and Unwanted: American Minority Struggles with Infertility and Assisted Conception." In Ethnicity, Infertility and Reproductive Technologies, eds. Lorraine Culley, Nicky Hudson, and Floor B. van Rooij, pp. 181–197.London: Earthscan Books. * Hahn, Robert A., and Marcia C. Inhorn (2009) "Introduction: Anthropology and Public Health." In Anthropology and Public Health: Bridging Differences in Culture and Society, eds. Robert A. Hahn and Marcia C. Inhorn, pp. 1–31.New York: Oxford University Press. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2007) “Loving Your Infertile Muslim Spouse: Notes on the Globalization of IVF and Its Romantic Commitments in Sunni Egypt and Shi’ite Lebanon.” In Love and Globalization: Transformations of Intimacy in the Contemporary World, eds. Mark B. Padilla, Jennifer S. Hirsch, Miguel Munoz-Laboy, Robert Sember, and Richard G. Parker, pp. 139–160.Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press. * Inhorn, Marcia C., and Aditya Bharadwaj. (2007) "Reproductively Disabled Lives: Infertility, Stigma, and Suffering in Egypt and India." Disability in Local and Global Worlds, eds. Benedicte Ingstad and Susan Reynolds Whyte, pp. 78–106.Berkeley: University of California Press. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2003) "The Risks of Test-tube Baby Making in Egypt." Risk, Culture, and Health Inequality: Shifting Perceptions of Danger and Blame, eds. Barbara Herr Harthorn and Laury Oaks, pp. 57–78.Westport, CT: Praeger. * Van Balen, Frank, and Marcia C. Inhorn (2002) "Introduction—Interpreting Infertility: A View from the Social Sciences." In Infertility Around the Globe: New Thinking on Childlessness, Gender, and Reproductive Technologies, eds. Marcia C. Inhorn and Frank van Balen, pp. 3–23.Berkeley: University of California Press. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2002) "The ‘Local’ Confronts the ‘Global’: Infertile Bodies and New Reproductive Technologies in Egypt." In Infertility Around the Globe: New Thinking on Childlessness, Gender, and Reproductive Technologies, eds. Marcia C. Inhorn and Frank van Balen, pp. 263–282.Berkeley: University of California Press.===Selected journal articles===* Inhorn, Marcia C. (2022) “Fertility Decline, Small Families, and Son Selection in the Muslim World: The Controversial Convergence of Contraceptive and Reprogenetic Technologies.” ''The Muslim World'' 112 (3): 324-339. * Birenbaum-Carmeli, Daphna; Inhorn, Marcia C.; Vale, Mira; Patrizio, Pasquale. (2022) “Cryopreserving Jewish Motherhood: Egg Freezing in Israel and the United States.” ''Medical Anthropology Quarterly'' 35 (3): 346-363. * Inhorn, Marcia C.; Birenbaum-Carmeli, Daphna; Yu, Ruoxi; Patrizio, Pasquale. (2022) “Egg Freezing at the End of Romance: A Technology of Hope, Despair, and Repair.” ''Science, Technology & Human Values'' 47 (1): 53-84. * Birenbaum-Carmeli, Daphna; Inhorn''',''' Marcia C.; Patrizio, Pasquale. (2021) “Transgender Men’s Fertility Preservation: Motivations, Experiences, and Support.” ''Culture, Health, and Sexuality'' 23 (7): 945-960. * Inhorn, Marcia C.; Yu, Ruoxi; Patrizio , Pasquale. (2020) “Upholding Success: Asian Americans, Egg Freezing, and the Fertility Paradox.” ''Medical Anthropology'' 40 (1): 3-19. * Inhorn, Marcia C.; Birenbaum-Carmeli, Daphna; Vale, Mira; Patrizio, Pasquale. (2020) “Abrahamic Traditions and Egg Freezing: Religious Women’s Experiences in Local Moral Worlds.” ''Social Science and Medicine'' 253  doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112976 * Inhorn, Marcia C., ''' '''Birenbaum-Carmeli, Daphna; Patrizio, Pasquale. (2020) “Elective Egg Freezing and Male Support: A Qualitative Study of Men’s Hidden Roles in Women’s Fertility Preservation.” ''Human Fertility'' 25 (1): 99-106. * Erten, Hatice Nilay; Inhorn, Marcia C. (2020) “Medical Anthropology in an Era of Authoritarianism.” In “World Anthropologies,” ''American Anthropologist'' 122 (2): 388-389. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2020) “Where Has the Quest for Conception Taken US? Lessons from Anthropology and Sociology.” ''Reproductive BioMedicine and Society Online'' 10:46-57. * Sadruddin, Aalyia Feroz Ali; Inhorn, Marcia C. (2020) '''“'''Aging, Vulnerability, and Questions of Care in the Time of COVID-19.” ''Anthropology Now'' 12 (1):17-23* Whittaker, Andrea; Inhorn, Marcia C.; Shenfield, Francoise. (2019) “Globalised Quests for Assisted Conception: Reproductive Travel for Infertility and Involuntary Childlessness.” ''Global Public Health'' 14 (12):1669-1688''. ''* Inhorn, Marcia C. (2018) “Islam, Sex, and Sin: IVF Ethnography as Muslim Men’s Confessional.”  Special Issue on Religions and Masculinities, William Dawley and Brendan Thornton, eds. ''Anthropology Quarterly'' 91 (1): 25-52. * Inhorn, Marcia C. (2018) “Searching for Love and Test-tube Babies: Iraqi Refugee Men in Reproductive Exile on the Margins of Detroit.” Special Issue on Translating Reproductive Desires and Disappointments, Linda Bennett, ed. ''Medical Anthropology'' 37 (2): 145-157. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
References
External links * * Faculty page at Yale* Curriculum Vitae* An interview with Marcia Inhorn, Somatosphere, March 10, 2010.