Alexandra D'Ubaldo-Gauffin

I am a PhD student at the Centre for Gender Research with a background in gender studies and social anthropology. My project focuses on non-biomedical methods for enhancing fertility or treating infertility. My research is based on ethnographic methods such as participant observation and interviews with practitioners and people who turn to such methods in Sweden.

Drawing on gender studies and medical anthropology, my project focuses on non-biomedical methods for enhancing fertility or treating infertility.

Studies on (in)fertility in the global North have focused almost exclusively on biomedical technologies. Practitioners who focus on non-biomedical methods to treat infertility or enhance fertility, or individuals who consciously opt for methods other than biomedical assisted reproductive technologies, are excluded from using them, or combine different therapeutic practices, have largely remained at the sidelines of scholarly attention. My study addresses this gap by investigating how (in)fertilities are made sense of and become enacted through a variety of non-biomedical technologies. Of particular interest is how the use of such methods are motivated, as well as how these methods can be linked to femininity and masculinity.

To this end, I interview practitioners and individuals who attempt to treat infertility or enhance fertility, as well as conduct participant observation in a variety of settings such as acupuncture and herbal medicine clinics, yoga retreats, or during healing ceremonies and fertility coaching consultations. My data also consists of textual and visual material from social media, websites and other sources.