Anna Wood and is a PhD student in Sociocultural Anthropology at WashU. She studies the intersections of culture, gender, race, technology, and the biopolitics of reproductive and sexual health. Her doctoral research investigates how assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) stratify reproductive labor vis-à-vis the global surrogacy industry. Wood seeks to understand how transnational surrogacy markets affect surrogates’ lives, including their own reproductive, economic, and social trajectories.
In her honors Anthropology thesis at Middlebury College, Wood ethnographically traced the complicated reasons college students use hormonal contraceptives. Her 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 her doctoral studies, Wood served as a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs, where she conducted a series of community engaged research projects across Northern California’s public sector.