“What Does Intersectional Feminist Biology Look Like?”

Feminist biology uses our understanding of the past to inform new questions and new interpretations of biological science. This field sometimes runs the risk of being excessively critical, or excessively positivist, about scientific research. It also tends to include only the voices of white women. What does an intersectional feminist biology look like where there is a dual focus on the practice of science—the historical context, culture, and climate—and its production—delving into new topics to better understand reproductive health?

Speaker Biography

Kathryn Clancy is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois, with additional affiliations in the Program for Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation; Women and Gender in Global Perspectives; and is a member of the Social and Emotional Dimensions of Well-Being Group at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Clancy’s research integrates life history, evolutionary medicine, and feminist biology to contest clinical definitions of normal in women’s health.

She earned her bachelor’s cum laude from Harvard University in biological anthropology and women’s studies, and completed her Ph.D. at Yale University in anthropology. She joined the U of I Department of Anthropology in 2008 and also is affiliated with the Department of Animal Biology.

She has many research interests, among them: reproductive ecology, human biological variation, endometrial function, female reproductive physiology, fetal growth and brain development, and food intolerance and inflammatory disease.

She has a significant online presence, with her Twitter feed (@KateClancy), a website and blog at www.kateclancy.com; and Period Podcast, a podcast about women’s health in its second season.