I am an anthropologist and STS scholar with a PhD from the Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS) at Cornell University. I am an Industry Assistant Professor in the department of Technology, Culture, and Society at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and Director of the Science and Technology Studies program. I was previously an Adjunct Instructor in the department from 2017-2019. I have been Faculty at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research since 2015.
My work is centered in feminist STS and medical anthropology and looks at topics including food allergies, medical activism, cyborgs and feminist cybercultures, the political economy of the global pharmaceutical industry, and the risks posed by digital health.
My first scholarly book, Food Allergy Advocacy: Parenting and the Politics of Care, examines how food allergy activism in the United States is shaped by reproductive politics, particularly norms of whiteness and femininity in caretaking and the ideal of the nuclear family. Other academic writing appears in Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, Medicine Anthropology Theory, Science as Culture, and the Journal of Cultural Economy.
I am the author of numerous articles for the online tech and culture magazine Real Life, including Sins of the Mother, an essay about the special perils of medical self-tracking technologies for pregnant people and parents, Bill of Health, an analysis of the new risks created by the integration of digital health platforms, and Fancy Feast, an examination of how race, gender, and colonialism influence food trends.
Beyond academia, I have worked as an independent ethnographic research and design research consultant in technology-related fields. I have led solo projects and built teams as part of large organizations. I have worked across contexts and time constraints, with non-profits and for-profit organizations, from designing agile ethnography frameworks to align with software development goals to conducting six-month ethnographic studies to suit client needs. This work has resulted in internal findings that addresses multiple stakeholders, as well as white papers, such as the reports Hate in Social Virtual Reality (2018) and The Trolls are Organized and Everyone’s a Target: The Effects of Online Hate and Harassment (2019) for the civil rights organization the Anti-Defamation League. I have also worked with early-stage biotech start-ups defining company strategy, building advisory boards, liaising with academic research centers, and co-leading Angel and Series A funding efforts.
This site began as a public research journal called Allergy and the City charting the progress of my dissertation research. The current version includes the posts that originally appeared on that blog, as well as updated information about my ongoing research, teaching, and other projects at BISR and in anthropology and STS. Please note that this blog is a public space and any communications through it are considered public speech. Feel free to contact me via email if you’d like to have an off-line conversation.
Danya Glabau 