Reya Farber’s scholarship focuses on how the growth of medical tourism, or health-related travel, impacts and involves transgender women in Thailand. As Asian countries have placed biotechnologies and medical tourism at the center of their development strategies, her research analyzes the complex shifts in Thai transgender women’s experiences with work, social status, gender, and citizenship within this context. Her research raises deep questions about the promises and pitfalls of Asian biotechnologies and medical tourism, attending to the intersections of globalization, gender, health, and labor for local people in medical tourism destinations.

The cluster has a writing group. Members can Email me (rdfarber@wm.edu) to join.