Alice Dreger
Alice Dreger, PhD, a noted author, ethicist, historian and specialist in abnormal anatomy, will discuss intersexuality and medical responses to it on Thursday, Jan. 27, 12 to 1 p.m., in HSW 303 on the Parnasssus campus.
Dreger, an associate professor of science and technology studies and associate faculty in the Center for Ethics and Humanities at Michigan State University, has been a key expert for those in medicine seeking new policies for people with a variety of congenital conditions.
She is board chair of the Intersex Society of North America, which is "devoted to systemic change to end shame, secrecy, and unwanted genital surgeries for people born with an anatomy that someone decided is not standard for male or female."
Her talk is on the same day that the San Francisco Human Rights Commission is expected to release a major report on medical responses to intersex conditions.
Her groundbreaking book
Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex (Harvard University Press) was widely acclaimed by medical, scientific, and lay readers, as was a later publication,
Intersex in the Age of Ethics. Both books featured the voices of clinicians, sociologists, ethicists, patients and families in an effort to educate and support physicians, other caregivers, and intersexed people themselves.
Her latest book,
One of Us, Conjoined Twins and the Future of Normal (Harvard University Press) was published last spring.
She has appeared on over 40 television and radio programs, and her essays on science, medicine and life have been published in the
New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and
Washington Post.
The Jan. 27 talk at UCSF is sponsored by the LGBTI Resources, Center for Gender Equity, and the Chancellor Advisory Committee on GLBT Issues.
Related Links
Detroit Free Press article - MSU professor leads a change for children with physical abnormalities
Intersex Society of North America
Center for Gender Equity
LGBTI Resources
