Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Women's and Gender Studies; Director, Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG). Courtesy appointments in Sociology, Political Science, and Health Management and Policy.
About
Anna Kirkland (she/her), J.D., Ph.D., is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and holds courtesy appointments in Sociology, Political Science, and Health Management and Policy. She is the Director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG). She is a member of Michigan’s Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation and served as a committee member for the National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering panel that produced Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (National Academies Press, June 2018).
Prof. Kirkland is a sociolegal scholar working on the relationships between health, law, and rights in the contemporary U.S. Her most recent work is about the implementation and politics of Section 1557, the non-discrimination clause of the Affordable Care Act, with a focus on transgender healthcare rights and insurance coverage and access (funded by the National Science Foundation). She is writing a book about civil rights in healthcare contexts in the contemporary U.S.
Prof. Kirkland is the author of Vaccine Court: The Law and Politics of Injury (New York University Press, 2016), Fat Rights: Dilemmas of Difference and Personhood (New York University Press, 2008), co-editor with Jonathan Metzl (Vanderbilt University) of Against Health: How Health Became the New Morality (New York University Press, 2010), and co-editor with Prof. Marie-Andree Jacob from Keele University, UK of Research Handbook on Sociolegal Studies of Medicine and Health (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020).
Prof. Kirkland has served as Director of Graduate Studies (2019) and Director of Undergraduate Studies (2011-2013) for the department of Women’s and Gender Studies as well as Director (2017-2018) and Undergraduate Director (2014-2016) of the Science, Technology, and Society Program. She teaches courses on gender and the law and health policy.
Selected Publications (ORCID 0000-0001-5711-4074):
Perspective—“Physicians as Political Pawns — The Texas Directive on Gender-Affirming Care and Other Moves,” New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 386, No. 16 (April 20, 2022) doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp2203746
"Health Insurance Rights and Access to Health Care for Trans People: The Social Construction of Medical Necessity,” with Shauhin Talesh and Angela Perone (December 2021). Online ahead of print: DOI: 10.1111/lasr.12575.
“Dropdown Rights: Categorizing Transgender Discrimination in Healthcare Technologies,” Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 289 (November 2021). Online ahead of print: doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114348
“Civil Rights as Patient Experience: How Healthcare Organizations Handle Complaints,” with Mikell Hyman, Law and Society Review, Vol. 55 No. 2 (2021): 273-275. doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12554
Perspective, “Health Coverage and Care for Transgender People — Threats and Opportunities,” with Daphna Stroumsa, New England Journal of Medicine, December 12, 2020. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp2032453
“The Public’s Role in COVID-19 Vaccination: Human-centered Recommendations to Enhance Pandemic Vaccine Awareness, Access, and Acceptance in the United States,” with Monica Schoch-Spana, Emily Brunson, Rex Long, Alexandra Ruth, Sanjana Ravi, Marc Trotochaud, Luciana Borio, Janesse Brewer, Joseph Buccina, Nancy Connell, Laura Lee Hall, Nancy Kass, Lisa Koonin, Heidi Larson, Brooke Fisher Lu, Saad B. Omer, Walter A. Orenstein, Gregory A. Poland, Lois Privor-Dumm, Sandra Crouse Quinn, Daniel Salmon, and Alexandre White, Vaccine, 2020 Oct 29:S0264-410X(20)31368-2. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.10.059
Transition Coverage and Clarity in Self-Insured Corporate Health Insurance Benefit Plans, with Shauhin Talesh and Angela Perone (open access in Transgender Health, September 2020, DOI: 10.1089/trgh.2020.0067)
Opinion: Use science to stop sexual harassment in higher education, with Kathryn B. H. Clancy and Lilia M. Cortina in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences September 2020, 117 (37) 22614-22618; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2016164117
Research Handbook on Sociolegal Studies of Medicine and Health with co-editor Marie-Andrée Jacob (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020).
National Academies Panel Member and co-author, Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (National Academies Press, June 2018)
Vaccine Court: The Law and Politics of Injury (New York University Press, 2016)
Co-editor with Jonathan Metzl, Against Health: How Health Became the New Morality (New York University Press, 2010)
Fat Rights: Dilemmas of Difference and Personhood (New York University Press, 2008)
Fields of Study:
- law and society
- law and politics of health
- vaccines
- antidiscrimination law
- health insurance
- gender and sexuality in contemporary U.S. law
- politics of rights claiming
- sexual harassment in organizations
