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Remaking Fertility

Research Team

Manuela Perrotta

I am Principal Investigator for this project and currently a lecturer in Technology and Organisation. I have spent the last ten years investigating the relations between new technology and knowing in biomedical organisations. With this project, I want to explore how biomedical imaging technologies and the development of professional and lay visions are involved in changing conceptions of the body. I believe this is a prime example of the mutual influence between organisations and society.


Josie Hamper

I am a postdoctoral researcher on the project, where I am in charge of recruiting and interviewing IVF patients and partners/family members. I also manage project communications and our blog. I joined in 2017 while completing my PhD in the School of Geography at Queen Mary University of London. My previous research includes a qualitative study of women’s use of fertility monitoring and pregnancy smartphone apps, and a study of first-time mothers’ use of the internet for breastfeeding support.


Marcin Smietana

I joined the ‘Remaking the Human Body’ project in February 2023 to further explore IVF patients’ perspectives. This follows on from my earlier research with gay male patients using surrogacy and IVF in the UK, USA and Spain. My previous research has focused on reproductive justice, aiming to take into account the perspectives of all people and groups that participate in reproductive arrangements. Before joining Queen Mary University of London, I worked as a research associate in the Reproductive Sociology Research Group (ReproSoc) at the University of Cambridge, with which I continue collaborating as an affiliated lecturer. I obtained my PhD from the University of Barcelona and since then I have collaborated with the AFIN research group at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Previous and visiting researchers

Giulia Zanini

Giulia Zanini

I was a postdoctoral researcher on the Remaking the Human Body project from 2019 to 2022, where I was responsible for the Public Engagement programme. I completed a PhD at the European University Institute (EUI) in 2013 on transnational donor conception travels. I then conducted postdoctoral qualitative research on infertility and assisted reproduction in Southern Europe, on permanent childlessness in Italy and on abortion barriers and travels in Europe. In 2022, I was awarded an ERC Starting Grant for the project “Pregnancy Dating Challenges: Technologies and Unequal Geographies of Abortion and Childbirth Care”, which will be based at Ca' Foscari University of Venice. My research interests include reproductive governance, technologies and travels, kinship and gender.


Serena Naim 

In 2016 I was a research assistant for the Remaking the Human Body project. I hold a Bachelor Degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Bologna (Italy) and a Master of Arts in Science and Technology Studies from York University (Toronto, Canada). My research interests focus on biomedicalization and medical interventions on dissident human bodies.


Anne-Sophie Giraud

I was a postdoctoral researcher for the Remaking the Human Body project in 2017 and I am currently affiliated to the project as a visiting research fellow. I am a researcher at the centre of social anthropology (LISST-CAS) in Toulouse, at the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research). I hold a Ph.D. in social anthropology from the EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales) in Paris. My main research interest deals with the constitution of personhood in the process of engendering, focusing on biotechnologies and embryo selection.


Post Doc Researcher - Remaking the Humanbody

Alina Geampana

I was a postdoctoral researcher on the Remaking the Human Body project from 2018-2020, where I investigated professional practices and the use of new technologies in IVF clinics, and I am currently affiliated with the project as an honorary research fellow. I am a lecturer in sociology at Aston University. My research centers on reproduction, technology and medicine. Using empirical qualitative methods, I have studied contraceptive risk assessment, genetic testing practices in fertility clinics, maternal health and, more recently, public views on IVF practices.

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