Anna Kirkland

Anna Kirkland is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Women's Studies, Director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG), and Director of the Science, Technology, and Society Program (2017-2018). She holds courtesy appointments in Political Science, Sociology, and Health Management and Policy.

Primarily situated in the law and society tradition, Professor Kirkland also works within science studies, disability studies, and gender studies using theoretical, qualitative, and interpretive methods. Prof. Kirkland is the author of two books: Vaccine Court: The Law and Politics of Injury, New York University Press (2016), and Fat Rights: Dilemmas of Difference and Personhood, New York University Press (2008). She is the co-editor with Jonathan Metzl of Against Health: How Health Became the New Morality, New York University Press, (2010).

Her published articles analyze topics such as the politics of vaccines in state legislatures, scientific credibility and vaccine criticism, rights consciousness in the fat acceptance movement, the environmental approach to anti-obesity policy, and transgender discrimination as sex discrimination.

Professor Kirkland is currently working on a new project funded by the National Science Foundation on the Affordable Care Act's Section 1557 ban on sex discrimination in health care settings. She teaches courses on gender, health, politics and law.

Selected publications:

“Credibility Battles in the Autism Litigation,”Social Studies of Science, Vol. 42, Issue 2 (April, 2012): 237–261.

"The Legitimacy of Vaccine Critics: What’s Left after Autism?,” Journal of Health Policy, Politics and Law, Vol. 37, No. 1 (February, 2012).  

(with Ben Hansen), “’How Do I Bring Diversity?’: Race and Class in the College Admissions Essay,” Law & Society Review, Vol. 45, No. 1 (2011): 103-138.

“The Environmental Account of Obesity:  A Case for Feminist Skepticism,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Winter 2011): 411-436.

“Revisiting Rights across Contexts:  Fat, Health, and Antidiscrimination Law,” Studies in Law, Politics and Society, Vol. 48 (Fall 2009): 121-145.

“Think of the Hippopotamus:  Rights Consciousness in the Fat Acceptance Movement,” Law & Society Review, Vol. 42, No. 2 (June 2008): 397-431.

“What’s at Stake in Transgender Discrimination as Sex Discrimination?” Signs:  Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Autumn 2006):  83-111.

“What’s at Stake in Fatness as a Disability?,” Disability Studies Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Winter 2006).

Field(s) of Study

• Public Law
• Law and Society
• Gender and Politics
• Theory