I am a feminist cultural anthropologist with research interests in gender, social inequality, and health and health policy. I received my Ph.D. in anthropology from New York University in 2007 and am currently Associate Professor in the anthropology department at the University at Albany (SUNY), where I am also affiliated with the department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities (CEMHD).

My research to date has primarily focused on reproduction and access to reproductive health care. My first book, Conceiving Cuba: Women, Reproduction, and the State in the Contemporary Era (Rutgers University Press, 2014) won ReproNetwork’s Adele E. Clarke Award for the Best Book in Reproduction and was recognized with an Honorable Mention for the Michelle Z. Rosaldo Prize for Best First Book in Feminist Anthropology.

My second book, Pregnant at Work: Low-Wage Workers, Power, and Temporal Injustice (New York University Press, March 2024) examines the experiences of pregnant service sector workers in New York City as they navigate the time conflicts between precarious low-wage service labor and safety net prenatal care. Following their stories, I show how inequalities of race, class, gender, and immigration status are reproduced through institutions and pregnant bodies.

My current research project applies my interest in health and health disparities to a new field to consider individual and community relationships to smell and health, as well as the production of scientific knowledge about human olfaction.

My work has been generously funded through grants from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research and the Fulbright-Hayes, as well as by grants from New York University and the University at Albany.