Rayna Rapp | |
---|---|
Born | 1946 |
Other names | Rayna R. Reiter (pen name) |
Occupation | Anthropologist professor |
Academic background | |
Education | Ph.D., University of Michigan, anthropology, 1969-73 M.A., University of Michigan, anthropology, 1968-69 B.S., University of Michigan, anthropology (with honors), 1964-68 |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Medical anthropology |
Institutions | New School for Social Research (1973-1998) New York University (2001-present) |
Rayna Rapp (pen name Rayna R. Reiter [1] ) is a professor and associate chair of anthropology at New York University,specializing in gender and health;the politics of reproduction;science,technology,and genetics;and disability in the United States and Europe. [2] [3] She has contributed over 80 published works to the field of anthropology,independently,as a co-author,editor,and foreword-writing,including Robbie Davis-Floyd and Carolyn Sargent's Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge. Her 1999 book,Testing Women,Testing the Fetus:the Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America, received multiple awards upon release [3] [4] and has been praised for providing "invaluable insights into the first generation of women who had to decide whether or not to terminate their pregnancies on the basis of amniocentesis result". [5] She co-authored many articles with Faye Ginsburg,including Enabling Disability:Rewriting Kinship,Reimagining Citizenship, a topic the pair has continued to research. [6]
Rapp received her PhD from the University of Michigan in 1973 after completing her bachelor's (with honors) and master's degrees from 1964–1969,each in anthropology. [4] [7] [3] After obtaining her PhD,Rapp continued her academic career at the New School for Social Research from 1973–1998,where she chaired the anthropology department and founded and chaired the graduate program in gender studies and feminist theory. [8] She published Testing Women,Testing the Women in 1999 after fifteen years of field work during her time there. [8] In 2001,Rapp became a professor of anthropology at New York University,acquiring the role of associate chair of the department in 2010. [3] She served on the executive board of the American Anthropological Association from 2012–2015. [9]
Rapp has spoken at multiple universities and conferences around the United States and Europe, [3] including the University of Texas at Austin,University of Kentucky, [10] and the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. [7]
Rapp has also acted as mentor and advisor to feminist anthropologists Khiara Bridges [11] and Elise Andaya. [12]
Rapp believes "there is 'a widening chasm' between the medical-scientific utopian dreams of human perfectibility and the public's understanding of human diversity and impairment". [10] Her work in both genetics and reproduction has resulted in extensive research into multiple reproductive technologies,including amniocentesis and non-invasive prenatal diagnosis tests. [8] Rapp stresses the "highly stratified and gendered benefits and burdens" these types of technologies carry and the audience they are marketed to. [10] Rapp has extended this work to examine how human disability intersects with prejudice,diversity,and "discrimination based on racial-ethnic,class,national,religious,and gendered backgrounds". [13] Her current project is projected to concern the relationships between neuroscience,disability,neurodiversity,familial structures,and activism. [13]
Rapp's work with long-time coauthor Faye Ginsburg focuses on disability,reproduction,science,and social structures. Their most recent work,"'Not Dead Yet':Changing Disability Imaginaries in the 21st Century" examines the continuation of eugenic thinking and how it intersects with disability and public consciousness. [14] The pair have also explored "disability consciousness and cultural innovation in special education". [10] Rapp and Ginsburg's previous work,Conceiving the New World Order:The Global Politics of Reproduction brought together multiple articles with the purpose of placing reproduction at the center of social theory. [15] In that collection,Ginsburg and Rapp recall Shellee Colen's idea of "stratified reproduction",which they define as:"The power relations by which some categories of people are empowered to nurture and reproduce,while others are disempowered." [16] Karen-Sue Taussig identifies the importance of reproduction in anthropology and points out the highly gendered nature of this discipline:in the collection,28 of the pieces are by females with 2 male co-authors. [17] Carolyn Sargent has praised the collection for "effectively [tracing] the intersections between global dynamics and local cultural logic and social relations." [15] Similarly,anthropologist Robbie Davis-Floyd claimed that the work "marks the maturation of the anthropology of reproduction" and identified it as one of the most important works in the field of reproductive anthropology at the time. [18] The work has also been identified as highlighting the intersections between reproduction,kinship,the body,and sexuality. [17]
Towards an Anthropology of Women (1975), which Rapp edited under the name Rayna Reiter,brings together articles that examine the historical structures that influence gender and inequity across cultures,but does so without trying to prove the universality of womanhood,according to June Nash. [19] Nash views the collection as simultaneously promoting the study and understanding of both women and anthropology. [19]
In 1999,Rapp published Testing Women,Testing the Fetus:the Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America ,which Adele Clark describes as "[making] significant and enduring contributions to...sociology and science and technology,medical sociology and anthropology,research methods,women's studies,feminist theory,clinical genetics,medicine,[and] nursing." [20] The book examines the effects of the routinization of fetal diagnosis and analyzes its cultural and social significance in a U.S. context, [21] positing that pregnant women's experience with amniocentesis is deeply influenced by gender,race,and class. [22] Rapp drew on her own experience with amniocentesis in her approach towards the book,participating in fifteen years of fieldwork and engaging with laboratory technicians,geneticists,support groups (of women who terminated pregnancies and families with disabled children),families of children with Down syndrome,genetic counselors,women who underwent amniocentesis or who refused the test,and some male partners. [8] [20] Rapp also suggests ideological links between abortion rights and disability rights activists,and argues that society should cultivate better communication between the two "realms". [23] [21]
Prenatal testing is a tool that can be used to detect some birth defects at various stages prior to birth. Prenatal testing consists of prenatal screening and prenatal diagnosis,which are aspects of prenatal care that focus on detecting problems with the pregnancy as early as possible. These may be anatomic and physiologic problems with the health of the zygote,embryo,or fetus,either before gestation even starts or as early in gestation as practicable. Screening can detect problems such as neural tube defects,chromosome abnormalities,and gene mutations that would lead to genetic disorders and birth defects,such as spina bifida,cleft palate,Down syndrome,trisomy 18,Tay–Sachs disease,sickle cell anemia,thalassemia,cystic fibrosis,muscular dystrophy,and fragile X syndrome. Some tests are designed to discover problems which primarily affect the health of the mother,such as PAPP-A to detect pre-eclampsia or glucose tolerance tests to diagnose gestational diabetes. Screening can also detect anatomical defects such as hydrocephalus,anencephaly,heart defects,and amniotic band syndrome.
Marxist feminism is a philosophical variant of feminism that incorporates and extends Marxist theory. Marxist feminism analyzes the ways in which women are exploited through capitalism and the individual ownership of private property. According to Marxist feminists,women's liberation can only be achieved by dismantling the capitalist systems in which they contend much of women's labor is uncompensated. Marxist feminists extend traditional Marxist analysis by applying it to unpaid domestic labor and sex relations.
Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a field of research,health care,and social activism that explores the health of an individual's reproductive system and sexual well-being during all stages of their life.
Female infertility refers to infertility in women. It affects an estimated 48 million women,with the highest prevalence of infertility affecting women in South Asia,Sub-Saharan Africa,North Africa/Middle East,and Central/Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Infertility is caused by many sources,including nutrition,diseases,and other malformations of the uterus. Infertility affects women from around the world,and the cultural and social stigma surrounding it varies.
Feminist anthropology is a four-field approach to anthropology that seeks to transform research findings,anthropological hiring practices,and the scholarly production of knowledge,using insights from feminist theory. Simultaneously,feminist anthropology challenges essentialist feminist theories developed in Europe and America. While feminists practiced cultural anthropology since its inception,it was not until the 1970s that feminist anthropology was formally recognized as a subdiscipline of anthropology. Since then,it has developed its own subsection of the American Anthropological Association – the Association for Feminist Anthropology –and its own publication,Feminist Anthropology. Their former journal Voices is now defunct.
Feminist sexology is an offshoot of traditional studies of sexology that focuses on the intersectionality of sex and gender in relation to the sexual lives of women. Sexology has a basis in psychoanalysis,specifically Freudian theory,which played a big role in early sexology. This reactionary field of feminist sexology seeks to be inclusive of experiences of sexuality and break down the problematic ideas that have been expressed by sexology in the past. Feminist sexology shares many principles with the overarching field of sexology;in particular,it does not try to prescribe a certain path or "normality" for women's sexuality,but only observe and note the different and varied ways in which women express their sexuality. It is a young field,but one that is growing rapidly.
The genetics and abortion issue is an extension of the abortion debate and the disability rights movement. Since the advent of forms of prenatal diagnosis,such as amniocentesis and ultrasound,it has become possible to detect the presence of congenital disorders in the fetus before birth. Specifically,disability-selective abortion is the abortion of fetuses that are found to have non-fatal mental or physical defects detected through prenatal testing. Many prenatal tests are now considered routine,such as testing for Down syndrome. Women who are discovered to be carrying fetuses with disabilities are often faced with the decision of whether to abort or to prepare to parent a child with disabilities.
Marcia Claire Inhorn is a medical anthropologist and William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at Yale University where she serves as 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.
Faye Ginsburg is an American anthropologist who has devoted her life to the exploration of different cultures and individuals’styles of life. Ginsburg has published ethnographies about her fieldwork experiences in the U.S.,Canada and Australia. The intercultural connections in her ethnographies have contributed to the fields of anthropology and sociology because they allow readers to understand other cultures through her narratives. Currently,she is an anthropology professor at New York University and the director of the Center for Media,Culture and History at NYU.
Carolyn Sargent is a medical anthropologist.
Leith Patricia Mullings was a Jamaican-born author,anthropologist and professor. She was president of the American Anthropological Association from 2011–2013,and was a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Mullings was involved in organizing for progressive social justice,racial equality and economic justice as one of the founding members of the Black Radical Congress and in her role as President of the AAA. Under her leadership,the American Anthropological Association took up the issue of academic labor rights.
L1 syndrome is a group of mild to severe X-linked recessive disorders that share a common genetic basis. The spectrum of L1 syndrome disorders includes X-linked complicated corpus callosum dysgenesis,spastic paraplegia 1,MASA syndrome,and X-linked hydrocephalus with stenosis of the aqueduct of Sylvius (HSAS). It is also called L1CAM syndrome and CRASH syndrome,an acronym for its primary clinical features:corpus callosum hypoplasia,retardation,adducted thumbs,spasticity,and hydrocephalus.
Elise L. Andaya is a cultural anthropologist who is currently employed as an Associate Professor of Anthropology by the University of Albany which is the state university of New York. Andaya studies Medical anthropology and gender anthropology and focuses on the effects of gender and citizenship on reproduction and access to healthcare in Cuba and the United States. She attended New York University in New York City,New York. She previously was on the Research Development Committee for the American Anthropological Association,and was a member at large for them from 2014–2017.
Khiara M. Bridges is an American law professor and anthropologist specializing in the intersectionality of race,reproductive justice,and law. She is best known for her book,Reproducing Race:An Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization,in which she argues that race and class largely affect the prenatal,childbirth,and postnatal experiences of women.
Testing Women,Testing the Fetus by Rayna Rapp is a book,published in 1999,about analysis of the social repercussions of prenatal genetic testing. Rapp combines the data she collected herself with historical context of amniocentesis and genetic counseling to argue that amniocentesis and those abortions following positive test results is a social decision as much as an individual one.
Stratified reproduction is a widely used social scientific concept,created by Shellee Colen,that describes imbalances in the ability of people of different races,ethnicities,nationalities,classes,and genders to reproduce and nurture their children. Researchers use the concept to describe the "power relations by which some categories of people are empowered to nurture and reproduce,while others are disempowered," as Rayna Rapp and Faye D. Ginsburg defined the term in 1995.
The Association for Feminist Anthropology (AFA),a section of the American Anthropological Association,is an American professional organization founded in 1988 to support the development of feminist analytic perspective in all areas of anthropology.
Dr. Kim Fountain is the Deputy CEO of The San Diego LGBT Community Center. She was previously the Chief Operating Officer of the Center on Halsted,the Midwest's largest LGBTQ+ community center,located in Chicago,Illinois,. the Executive Director of the Pride Center of Vermont and the Co-Director for the New York City Gay &Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. Fountain has served on the New York State Crime Victims Board and is a trainer for the Office of Victims of Crime and the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs' Reports Committee. She serves on the board of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum.
Vardit Ravitsky is a bioethicist,researcher,and author. She is president and CEO of The Hastings Center,a full professor at the University of Montreal,and a senior lecturer on Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is immediate-past president and current vice-president of the International Association of Bioethics,and the director of Ethics and Health at the Center for Research on Ethics. She is a Fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation,where she chaired the COVID-19 Impact Committee. She is also Fellow of The Hastings Center and of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
Eli Clare is an American writer,activist,educator,and speaker. His work focuses on queer,transgender,and disability issues. Clare was one of the first scholars to popularize the bodymind concept.