Sarah Franklin (born 1960) is an American

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

who has substantially contributed to the fields of

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

gender studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field n ...

cultural studies Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...

and the social study of reproductive and genetic technology. She has conducted fieldwork on IVF,

cloning Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical genomes, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction; this reproduction of an organism by itself without ...

embryology Embryology (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, ''-logy, -logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the Prenatal development (biology), prenatal development of gametes (sex ...

and

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...

research. Her work combines both

ethnographic Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

methods and

kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...

theory, with more recent approaches from

science studies Science studies is an interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary research area that seeks to situate scientific expertise in broad social, historical, and philosophical contexts. It uses various methods to analyze the production, representation an ...

and

. In 2001 she was appointed to a Personal Chair in the Anthropology of Science, the first of its kind in the UK, and a field she has helped to create. She became Professor of Social Studies of Biomedicine in the Department of Sociology at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

in 2004. In 2011 she was elected to the Professorship of Sociology at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

Education

Franklin is a graduate of

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

(1982) from which she received a Distinguished Alumnae Award in 2011. She has an MA in

Women's Studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on Feminism, feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining Social constructionism, social and cultural constructs of gender; ...

from the

University of Kent The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its roya ...

(1984), an MA in

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

(1986) and a PhD from the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) was a research centre at the University of Birmingham, England. It was founded in 1964 by Stuart Hall and Richard Hoggart, its first director. From 1964 to 2002, it played a critical role in dev ...

(1992). She is one of the first anthropologists to undertake ethnographic research on new reproductive technologies.

Research

She has written and edited numerous books on reproductive and genetic technologies, as well as more than 150 articles, chapters, and reports. She has designed and led several major research projects addressing the social and cultural dimensions of new reproductive and genetic technologies with funding from the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, The Wellcome Trust, the Leverhulme Trust, the European Commission, the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) the British Academy, the Philomathia Foundation, and the Medical Research Council (UK). In 2010 she was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Biology. The post-modernist aspects of some of her work have been criticized by someone outside her fields of research. On 12 October 2017 she became a

Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences The Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) is an award granted by the Academy of Social Sciences to leading academics, policy-makers, and practitioners of the social sciences. Fellows were previously known as Academicians and used t ...

, while in 2021 she was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

Selected publications

''Biological Relatives: IVF, stem cells and the future of kinship'', Duke University Press, 2013
*''Dolly Mixtures: the remaking of genealogy'', Duke University Press, 2007. *''Born and Made: an ethnography of preimplantation genetic diagnosis'', (co-authored with Celia Roberts), Princeton University Press, 2006. *''Remaking Life and Death: towards an anthropology of the biosciences'', (co-edited with Margaret Lock), SAR Press, 2003 *''Relative Values: reconfiguring kinship studies'', Duke 2001 (co-edited with Susan McKinnon). *''Global Nature, Global Culture'', (co-authored with Celia Lury and Jackie Stacey), Sage, 2000. *''Reproducing Reproduction: Kinship, Power and Technological Innovation'', (co-edited with Helena Ragone), UPenn Press, 1998 *''Embodied Progress: a cultural account of assisted conception'', Routledge, 1997. *''The Sociology of Gender'', Edward Elgar, 1996. *''Technologies of Procreation: kinship in the age of assisted conception'', (co-authored with Jeanette Edwards, Eric Hirsch, Frances Price and Marilyn Strathern), Manchester University Press, 1993. Second Edition, Routledge, 1999. *''Off-Centre: feminism and cultural studies'', (co-edited with Celia Lury and Jackie Stacey), Harper Collins, 1991.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Franklin, Sarah 1960 births Living people Academics of the London School of Economics 21st-century American anthropologists American women anthropologists Smith College alumni New York University alumni Alumni of the University of Birmingham Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences American women academics Fellows of the British Academy 21st-century American women