Eric Plemons, PhD - The Look of a Woman

UAHS Office of Diversity & Inclusion presents:

Assistant Professor of Anthropology, The University of Arizona

Dr. Plemons is a medical anthropologist focused on surgical practice and the production, circulation and application of expert knowledge on gendered bodies. He also is the Director of the Medical Anthropology Concentration and Certificate Programs, and Co-chair of the UA Transgender Studies Research Cluster. His new book, The Look of a Woman, examines facial feminization surgery, a series of bone and soft tissue reconstructive surgeries intended to feminize the faces of trans- women. He argues that good trans- medicine has more than one means and more than one end. He uses the term "trans- therapeutics," which is based on the idea that assessments of the methods and efficacy of medical intervention depend on defining intended outcomes.

Dr. Plemons' current projects include multisited ethnographic research investigating how US institutions are responding to a growing demand for trans- healthcare, and a literature-based analysis of how trans- surgical outcomes are studied and clinically assessed. He is also developing a book project on genital injury and rehabilitation. Focused on knowledge and how it moves in the form of embodied and institutional practices, his research has been problem- rather than place-based. Working on expertise as it shapes practices of gender-making medicine, Dr. Plemons has conducted ethnographic work in surgical clinics in the US, Northern Europe, and South America.

Questions? Please contact UAHS ODI at 520-621-5531 or uahs-odi@email.arizona.edu.