Polina Vlasenko

I am a cultural and medical anthropologist trained in political philosophy, gender studies, and science and technology studies. I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. My doctoral research explored how women encounter assisted reproductive technologies in Ukraine—both as patients seeking infertility treatment and as workers engaging in egg donation and surrogacy as a means of livelihood in the wake of profound economic and social upheavals. My book project examines the political economy of the global circulation of Ukrainian donor eggs, including how the Russian full-scale invasion has reshaped the supply of donor eggs to Europe and beyond. My current postdoctoral work focuses on transnational mobilities of reproductive workers (surrogates and egg donors), biomaterials, and expertise between Central Asia and the surrogacy hub of Georgia.