stef shuster receives prestigious research fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities
October 25, 2024 - Blythe White
stef m. shuster, associate professor of sociology in Michigan State University’s Lyman Briggs College and Department of Sociology, has been awarded a competitive 2024 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for their research.
shuster's awarded fellowship was among $33.8 million in funding awarded to 260 humanities projects nationwide by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in January. Of the 260 projects, only 82 grants and fellowships were awarded to faculty and scholars involved in advanced research in the humanities (for a total of $4.7 million).
shuster received a $60,000 NEH fellowship to fully dedicate their time this academic year to writing their in-progress book, entitled Trans Reproduction: Creating Productive and Socially Fit Transgender People. The project will explore the experiences of transgender individuals seeking reproductive care since the mid-20th century. In addition, it will consider contemporaneous medical and scientific attitudes toward gender and reproductive care. shuster seeks to place the experiences of transgender individuals in the American history of power struggles, practices and policies regarding the reproduction and rights of minoritized people, including people of color, women who were sexually active, queer people, immigrants, and people in poverty.
The project extends shuster’s research from their first book, Trans Medicine: The Emergence and Practice of Treating Gender. Trans Medicine was an examination of gender, authority, and evidence in gender-affirming care and their consequences on trans patients from the mid-20th century to today. Trans Reproduction expands upon this historical context and considers how ideas about the reproductive health of trans people present in the mid-20th century continue today.
“After I published Trans Medicine I was haunted by a finding in the archive that I was only able to address at the surface level (one project cannot do all the things!),” writes shuster. “I couldn’t stop thinking about how medical professionals and scientists in the mid-20th century were so invested in ensuring that trans people did not have children, left their families, and started life anew upon transitioning. What consequences did this have on trans people? How did it shape trans people’s relationships to families, the possibility of having or raising children? And what about trans people who resisted these mandates? This new project does a deep dive into this history and will also interview trans people who may experience the spillover effects of the historical legacy of controlling trans people’s reproduction.”
In our current political landscape, questions of reproductive healthcare are deeply entrenched in national conversations. Yet trans people’s experiences with reproductive health remain overlooked. Trans Reproduction is bound to make significant contributions to the humanities and social sciences in its exploration.
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Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at www.neh.gov.