About Daisy

PROFESSOR, WRITER, ANTHROPOLOGIST

Daisy Deomampo is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Fordham University. She is a cultural and medical anthropologist whose research interests include science and technology studies, gender and health, and bioethics and social justice.

Her book, Transnational Reproduction: Race, Kinship, and Commercial Surrogacy in India (2016, NYU Press), is the first to foreground issues of race and racialization in the context of transnational surrogacy in India. The book is based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in India with Indian surrogate mothers, Western intended parents, and egg donors from around the world, as well as doctors and other actors. 

Dr. Deomampo's research and writing have been supported by multiple sources including the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. Her current research explores the social meanings of race in the context of egg and sperm donation in the United States.

Curriculum Vitae

Academic Appointments

2019-
Associate Professor of Anthropology, Fordham University
Faculty Affiliate: Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, Center for Ethics Education Bioethics Program

2013–19
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Fordham University

Education

Ph.D. Anthropology, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 2013
M.A. International Affairs, The New School, 2004
B.S. Linguistics & Spanish, Certificate in Global Cultures, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1998

Publications

Books

2016
Transnational Reproduction: Race, Kinship, and Commercial Surrogacy in India. New York: New York University Press.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

2016
Race, Nation, and the Production of Intimacy: Transnational Egg Donation in India. positions: asia critique 24(1): 303-332.

2015
Defining Parents, Making Citizens: Nationality and Citizenship in Transnational Surrogacy. Medical Anthropology 34(3): 210-225.

2015    
Extending Theory, Rupturing Boundaries: Reproduction, Health, and Medicine Beyond North-South Boundaries [co-authored with Nayantara Sheoran and Cecilia Van Hollen]. Medical Anthropology 34(3): 185-191.

2013
Transnational Surrogacy in India: Interrogating Power and Women’s Agency. Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies 34(3): 167-188.

2013
Gendered Geographies of Reproductive Tourism. Gender & Society 27(4): 514-537.

2008
Gender, Sexuality and AIDS in Brazil: Transformative Approaches to HIV prevention. Michigan Discussions in Anthropology 17(1): 108-131.

Reprinted articles

2016
Transnational Surrogacy in India: Interrogating Power and Women’s Agency. In The Gender, Culture, and Power Reader, edited by Dorothy L. Hodgson. Pp. 56-64. New York: Oxford University Press.

Edited journal issues

2015
Extending Theory, Rupturing Boundaries: Reproduction, Health, and Medicine Beyond North-South Binaries. Special issue of Medical Anthropology 34(3). Co-edited with Nayantara Sheoran.

Online publications

2014
Beyond “Wombs for Rent”: Indian Surrogates and the Need for Evidence-Based Policy. Invited blog post for Somatosphere. June 5. 

2014
Engaged Anthropology. Blog post for Wenner-Gren Foundation. April 29. 

2013
Movement and Mobility in Transnational Surrogacy. Blog post for Gender & Society blog. August 27. 

Book reviews

In press
Conceptions: Infertility and Procreative Technologies in India, by Aditya Bharadwaj. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 

2014
Globalization and Transnational Surrogacy in India: Outsourcing Life, edited by Sayantani DasGupta and Shamita Das Dasgupta. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 37(4): 739-740. 

Other publications

2012
Negotiating Kinship in Transnational Surrogacy. Anthropology News 53(4): 5,13.

2008
We are Part of the Solution. AIDS Legal Network Quarterly Oct. 2008: 71.

2008
Understanding Sexual Pleasure and Desire. AIDS Legal Network Quarterly Oct. 2008: 11.

2008
News from the Margins. Mujeres Adelante, Daily newsletter on women’s rights and HIV—International AIDS Conference, Mexico City, 8/8/2008.

Grants and Fellowships

External

2017
Wenner-Gren Foundation Workshop Grant

2015
Wenner-Gren Foundation Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship

2013
Wenner-Gren Foundation Engaged Anthropology Grant

2013
Consortium for Faculty Diversity Postdoctoral Fellowship [declined]

2012
Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship

2012
American Association of University Women (AAUW) American Dissertation Fellowship [declined]

2010
National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant

2010
Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant

2009
Summer Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, Hindi (University of Wisconsin)

2005
Summer Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, Portuguese (University of Florida)

Internal

2017-18
Fordham University Faculty Fellowship

2016
Fordham University Faculty Research Grant

2015
Fordham University Manuscript Publication Assistance Award

2013
Fordham University Faculty Research Grant

2012
CUNY Graduate Center Dissertation Year Fellowship

2009
CUNY Graduate Center Doctoral Student Research Grant

2008
CUNY Anthropology Summer Research and Travel Grant

2006–11
CUNY Graduate Center Chancellor’s Fellowship

2004–05
Academic Year Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, Portuguese (University of Michigan)

2002–04
The New School Tuition Scholarship

Honors and Awards

2012
Society for Medical Anthropology Charles Hughes Graduate Student Paper Prize

2012
Society for Medical Anthropology Student Travel Award

2010
Wenner-Gren Foundation Osmundsen Initiative Award

Conference Activity

Panels organized and chaired

2017
Race, Reproduction, Risk: Exposures in Feminist Ethnographies of Science and Technology. Session co-organizer and co-chair, American Ethnological Society Annual Meeting. Stanford, CA, March 31.

2016
Race-Reproductivities: The R-R Politics of Evidence, Accident, and Discovery. Executive session co-chair, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. Minneapolis, MN, November 20.

2013
Nuclear Science, Reproductive Technologies, and the Making of Future Families: Genetics, Race, Kinship, and Nation. Session co-organizer and chair, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL, November 23.

2012
Extending Theory, Rupturing Boundaries: Health, Medicine, and Reproduction Beyond North-South Binaries. Session co-organizer and co-chair, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. San Francisco, CA, November 17.

2011
Tracing Reproductive and Contraceptive Relations: Reproductive Politics, Technological Innovations and Legacies of Globalization. Session co-organizer and co-chair, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. Montreal, Canada, November 18.

2011
Reproductive and Contraceptive Technologies: Shifting Subjectivities and Contemporary Lives. Session co-organizer and co-chair, Society for Social Studies of Science Annual Meeting. Cleveland, OH, November 5.

Conference presentations

2017
Race, ethics, and value: Egg donation in Asian America. Conference on Reproductive Ethics. Albany, NY, April 8.

2017
Race, genes, and identity: Oocyte donation in Asian America. American Ethnological Society Annual Meeting. Stanford, CA, March 31.

2016
Race, justice, and reproductive science: Transnational surrogacy and related technologies. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. Minneapolis, MN, November 17.

2016
Race, reproductive justice, and transnational surrogacy in India. Baby Markets Congress, University of California-Irvine School of Law. Newport Beach, CA, April 2.

2015
Physician racism and the construction of kinship in transnational surrogacy. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Association for Feminist Anthropology Invited Session. Denver, CO, November 21.

2015
Consumption, community, and biosociality: Creating communities of parents through transnational surrogacy. Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting. New York, NY, February 28.

2014
Consumption, community, and biosociality: Creating communities of parents through transnational surrogacy. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. Washington, DC, December 4.

2014
Reflections: Global surrogacy practices. International Forum on Intercountry Adoption and Global Surrogacy. International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, Netherlands, August 11.

2014
Biosociality and how bodies suffer: Cesarean delivery and commercial surrogacy in India. Conference on Population and Development: Anthropological Perspectives. Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University. Providence, RI, March 15.

2013
Genes, gifts, and globe-trotting egg donors: Transnational reproduction in India. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL, November 23.

2013
Genes, gifts, and globe-trotting egg donors: Transnational reproduction in India.  Society for Social Studies of Science Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA, October 11.

2013
Race, skin tone, and the production of intimacy: Transnational egg donation in India. Workshop on Intimate Industries in Asia at Pomona College. Claremont, CA, March 8.

2012
Defining parents, making citizens: Nationality and kinship in transnational surrogacy. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. San Francisco, CA, November 18.

2012
The construction of citizenship in transnational spaces: Global surrogacy in India. 3rd Annual Global Lives Conference, Stony Brook University. New York, NY, October 13.

2012
Stratified reproduction and transnational surrogacy in India. Conference of Ford Fellows. Newport Beach, CA, September 22.

2012
Stratified reproduction, donor egg IVF, and transnational surrogacy in India. The Tarrytown Meetings, Center for Genetics and Society. Tarrytown, NY, July 25.

2011
Genes, race and relatedness: Negotiating kinship in transnational surrogacy. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. Montreal, Canada, November 18.

2011
Transnational surrogacy, kinship and reproductive relations in India. Society for Social Studies of Science Annual Meeting. Cleveland, OH, November 5.

2011
Transnational surrogacy in India: Ethnographic perspectives. The Tarrytown Meetings, Center for Genetics and Society. Tarrytown, NY, July 25.

2009
The new global ‘division of labor’: Reproductive tourism in Mumbai, India. Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wisconsin. Madison, WI, October 25.

2009
Making families in India: Physicians’ discourses on transnational surrogacy. Globalization and Society in India Working Group Conference at George Mason University. Fairfax, VA, February 26.

2008
Economics, policy and kinship in transnational Indian surrogacy: Examining physicians’ narratives. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. San Francisco, CA, November 22.

2008
Developing effective sexual violence referral information for youth: The P-process in action. Co-authored conference paper, American Public Health Association Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA, October 27.

2008
Dating violence in New York City high school males: Aggression, victimization, and reciprocal violence. Co-authored conference paper, American Public Health Association Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA, October 28.

2008
Feminism in the age of HIV/AIDS: Voices from South African activists. Co-authored poster presentation, XVII International AIDS Conference. Mexico City, August 5.

2008
Gender and activism in the new South Africa: Reflections on feminism, resistance, and the Zuma rape trial. Conference on Interrogating Diversity, American University. Washington, DC, March 22.

Discussant and moderator roles

2016
Panel discussant, The Donor Project. Shoestring Press. Brooklyn, NY, April 13.

2014
Seminar discussant, “‘I know it when I see it’: Dis/similarity in Medieval Muslim Determinations of Paternity.” History of Science, Technology, Environment, and Medicine (HSTEM) Seminar, Fordham University. New York, NY, March 11.

2011
Panel discussant, Made in India: Screening and Discussion. Center for Health, Media and Policy, Hunter College. New York, NY, February 23.

2009
Panel moderator, Feminist Research Methodologies. Feminist Pedagogy Conference, CUNY Graduate Center. New York, NY, November 6.

Invited Lectures and Presentations

2016
Transnational reproduction: Race, kinship, and commercial surrogacy in India. The Center for Ethics Education, Fordham University. Bronx, NY, April 27.

2016
Beyond “wombs for rent”: Indian surrogates and the need for evidence based policy. Global Bioethics Initiative, The United Nations. New York, NY, March 23.

2016
Imagining race in transnational surrogacy. Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University. Nashville, TN, March 18.

2015
Imagining race in transnational surrogacy. South Asia Center, Syracuse University. Syracuse, NY, November 10.

2014
Possibilities for action? Transnational surrogacy and implications for policy, health, and human rights. Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies Monthly Seminar Series, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Mumbai, India, January 8.

2012
Reproductive tourism and the politics of reproduction. Department of Anthropology Graduate Seminar, New York University. New York, NY, February 15.

2011
Medical anthropology and reproductive tourism in India. Bard Prison Initiative, Bayview Correctional Facility for Women. New York, NY, March 31.

2011
Reflections on fieldwork and diva donors. Marginalia meets Caesura, Center for Humanities, CUNY Graduate Center. New York, NY, February 18.

Teaching Experience

Fordham University, Bronx, NY

Race, Sex, and Science (Spring 2017)
Reproductive Technologies: Global Perspectives (Spring 2016, Fall 2016)
Health, Healing, and Social Justice (Spring 2016, Spring 2017)
Anthropology of Health & Healing (Spring 2014)
Vocation of the Health Care Provider (Fall 2013)
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Fall 2016)

Hunter College, CUNY, New York, NY

Peoples and Cultures of South Asia (Spring 2012)
Medical Anthropology (Spring 2009, Fall 2009)
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (Fall 2008)

Professional Activities and Affiliations

Professional Service

Grant Reviewer, Swiss National Science Foundation, 2015
Faculty mentor, Society for Medical Anthropology, 2015
Award committee member, Society for Medical Anthropology Charles Hughes Paper Prize, 2014

Journal Manuscript Review: American Anthropologist | Gender & Society | Gender, Technology and Development | Health, Risk & Society | Journal of Intercultural Studies | Medical Anthropology | Social Science & Medicine | Women’s Studies International Forum

Book Manuscript Review: Indiana University Press, University of Texas Press

University Service — Fordham University

Member, American Pluralism Assessment Committee, 2017
Reviewer, Undergraduate Research Grants, 2016
Member, Committee on Health Professions, 2016
Faculty Reviewer, Fordham Undergraduate Research Journal, 2016
Reviewer, Faculty Research Grants, 2015, 2016

Departmental Service — Fordham University

Member, Merit Committee, 2016
Reviewer, Ewing Memorial Award, Fordham University, 2015, 2017
Member, Faculty Search Committee, Fordham University, 2015–16
Mentor, Undergraduate Research, Fordham University, 2014–present
Reviewer, Academic Integrity Violation Case, Fordham University, 2014

Professional Memberships and Working Groups

American Anthropological Association (Sections: Society for Medical Anthropology, Association for Feminist Anthropology, Society for Cultural Anthropology)

Society for Social Studies of Science

Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) Working Group

Race and Reproductivities Working Group

Languages

Spanish: proficient speaking, reading, and writing
Portuguese: elementary speaking, reading, and writing
Hindi: elementary speaking, reading, and writing
Tagalog: basic comprehension (heritage language)