Rene Almeling is Professor of Sociology at Yale University. Her primary research and teaching interests are in gender, medicine, and reproduction. Currently, she is developing a new project on climate change. Using a range of qualitative, historical, and quantitative methods, her work examines questions about how biological bodies and cultural norms interact to influence scientific knowledge, markets, and individual experiences.
Professor Almeling is the author of two award-winning books: Sex Cells offers an inside look at the American market for egg and sperm donors, and GUYnecology examines the causes and consequences of inattention to male reproductive health. She has conducted two original surveys, the first on Americans’ attitudes toward genetic risk (with political scientist Shana Kushner Gadarian), and the second on women’s bodily experiences of in vitro fertilization. She is co-editor of two volumes, the first on “Men, Masculinities, and Reproduction” with sociologist Sebastian Mohr, and the second is Seminal: On Sperm, Health, and Politics with bioethicist Lisa Campo-Engelstein and physician Brian T. Nguyen (forthcoming 2025). Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Elle.
Professor Almeling’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. At Yale, she holds courtesy appointments in American Studies; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the Institution for Social and Policy Research, the School of Public Health, and the School of Medicine.
Professor Almeling is the author of two award-winning books: Sex Cells offers an inside look at the American market for egg and sperm donors, and GUYnecology examines the causes and consequences of inattention to male reproductive health. She has conducted two original surveys, the first on Americans’ attitudes toward genetic risk (with political scientist Shana Kushner Gadarian), and the second on women’s bodily experiences of in vitro fertilization. She is co-editor of two volumes, the first on “Men, Masculinities, and Reproduction” with sociologist Sebastian Mohr, and the second is Seminal: On Sperm, Health, and Politics with bioethicist Lisa Campo-Engelstein and physician Brian T. Nguyen (forthcoming 2025). Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Elle.
Professor Almeling’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. At Yale, she holds courtesy appointments in American Studies; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the Institution for Social and Policy Research, the School of Public Health, and the School of Medicine.
