Emily Martin
ProfessorAnthropologist
United States
Emily Martin is an American anthropologist and professor emerita at New York University whose work has examined science, medicine, reproduction, and mental health through a cultural lens. Her books include The Woman in the Body and Bipolar Expeditions, the latter combining ethnographic research on bipolar disorder with her own experience of the condition. [3]
Career and work
Martin has held academic positions at the University of California, Irvine, Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, and New York University, where she became professor of anthropology and is now professor emerita. [3][4]
Her research has ranged across medical anthropology, science and technology studies, gender, reproduction, immunity, psychology, and the cultural meanings attached to scientific knowledge. Her major books include The Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction (1987), Flexible Bodies: Tracking Immunity in American Culture from the Days of Polio to the Age of AIDS (1994), and Bipolar Expeditions: Mania and Depression in American Culture (2007). She was also the founding editor of Anthropology Now. [3]
Martin received the Society for Social Studies of Science’s John Desmond Bernal Prize in 2019 for distinguished contributions to science and technology studies. [3]
What has been publicly discussed
Sources and other resourcesExpand to view the sources used in this profile and resources to learn more.
Sources used for this profile
The following sources contain information that supports the claims made on this page.
Bipolar Expeditions: Mania and Depression in American Culture — Emily Martin Martin’s central work on bipolar disorder and the primary source for her disclosure, treatment, stigma, and Princeton support-group experience.
book or publisher page“An Anthropologist Investigates How We Think About How We Think” — The New Yorker, 2018 Covers Martin’s academic career, depression, manic depression, and visual hallucinations.
profile or biography2019 John Desmond Bernal Prize — Society for Social Studies of Science Documents Martin’s academic career, research, books, and professional recognition.
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Society for the Anthropology of North America — Distinguished Achievement Prize Documents Martin’s academic appointments.
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Recommended books and other resources about Emily Martin and their experiences.
- “From Flexible Bodies to Fluid Minds: An Interview with Emily Martin”Interview
Extended academic interview about manic depression, neuroscience, pharmaceutical treatment, and cultural ideas about rationality.
- “People Living Under the Description of Manic Depression and Hyperactivity” — École normale supérieure, 2013Article
Lecture presenting major themes from Martin’s research.