PSTC | Postdoctoral Research Associate

Alyssa Basmajian is a medical anthropologist who studies the social and political tensions surrounding reproductive health. Basmajian’s current book project, The Politics of Abortion Care in Ohio, is based on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork before and after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade (1973) and the legal right to abortion. She examines the politics of abortion care from within the walls of clinics to the politically heated Ohio state legislature with special attention to how gendered state-violence unfolds in the everyday attempt to provide reproductive health care.

Before joining Brown University, Basmajian received her PhD in Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University specializing in medical anthropology. She has received support from the National Institute of Child Health and Development Pre-Doctoral Training Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Health (NICHD-GSH); the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF-GRF) in Medical Anthropology; and the National Science Foundation Cultural Anthropology Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (NSF-DDRIG).

Selected Publications:

Basmajian, Alyssa L. 2024. Reproductive Gerrymandering, Bureaucratic Violence, and the Erosion of Abortion Access in the US. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12843

Basmajian, Alyssa, Philip Kreniske, Erin V. Moore, Esther Spindler, Fred Nalugoda, Neema Nakyanjo,William Ddaaki, John Santelli, Jennifer S. Hirsch. 2022. Gendered access to digital capital and mobile phone ownership among young people in Rakai, Uganda. Culture, Health & Sexuality.

Basmajian, Alyssa. 2014. Abortion Doulas: Changing the Narrative. Anthropology Now 6(2): 44-51.

Scholarly Interests

Adolescent/Young Adult Developmental Transitions, HIV Interventions, Health Inequities, Reproductive Justice