1. ★If you’re just looking for a hotlinked list of what’s new, go to my “new stuff” page.
   

Briefly, because I’m finally in the second stage of labor on the new book....

Utne Reader has named me one of its Visionaries! You can read about it by clicking here. There’s my psychedelic Utne portrait by Zina Saunders, to the right. And yes, the related rumors are true; I’ve formally petitioned my family to address me as “Her Visionary.” I think the best part of it all was coming upon the full page ad my medical school took out to congratulate me. That actually made me burst into tears. How many academics get to feel that valued? I’m lucky.

My chair and friend Tod Chambers told me that if he saw that Utne picture without my handing it to him, he’d never know it was me. So, since it was based on older pictures, I thought it was time to go get some more professional pictures. There’s one to the right, taken a couple of weeks ago. What do you think? (I think the Utne one makes me look rested and young, versus the reality, ha ha.)

Because I’ve been busy with the book, I’ve been busy NOT writing up little things I’d love to, including my delight at our new Chevy Volt (yes!). And I’ve not been writing about our pet rat Truffle, who once left me flowers on my pillow (no kidding; see right). And I’ve skipped firing off a blog on my fascinating visit with the DSD (disorders of sex development) team at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

I also haven’t written up my frustration that, in spite of multiple appeals from me, the Hastings Center won’t disclose, in relation to a perfectly righteous essay by Art Caplan on Michele Bachmann and the HPV vaccine, that Art has got complex financial ties with Merck, the maker of the HPV vaccine. I think this kind of vaccine defense when you take money from the vaccine’s maker calls for a disclosure. (Check out the fine print on page two of this.) Way to undermine public health campaigns by feeding the conspiracy theorists who think vaccine campaigns are all about money. Anyway, if you’re wondering why I haven’t felt motivated to write for Bioethics Forum since September, well, there’s your answer.

Anyway, when not locked in the heavenly cottage working on the book...or watching birds....I’ve been traveling about, speaking and meeting with people, and enjoying that as much as ever (except for the challenges faced by traveling with gluten and dairy intolerance, of course). As I write, I’m looking forward to a dinner in New York next week with friends from the various advocacy groups for people born with sex anomalies. The Toronto gig happened because the pediatric surgery folks invited me up to do Grand Rounds for their Bioethics Week. How did it go? Well, we’ve come a long way, and we have a way to go, still. But it’s easy to feel inspired to keep going when I have experiences like I did at the Hypospadias & Epispadias Association meeting in October.

In early November I presented the prenatal dexamethasone work to my colleagues at University of Illinois Chicago, and that was fantastic. There is nothing like having a dream team of people from medical sociology, history, disability studies, genetic counseling, etc. to help you frame a complex project.

With Sari van Anders of the University of Michigan, I’m organizing a spring invitation-only workshop on feminist approaches to sex research. I’m kind of thinking of that as the spring spa vacation for my brain. In March, April, and May, by invitation I’ll also be speaking at Harvard Law School and the National Association of Perinatal Social Workers, and I’ll be delivering a keynote at the American Medical Student Association conference in Dallas.

Back in August, the Atlantic Monthly ran a ten-question interview with me; see that here. The hardest part was narrowing down my heroes in medicine to only three. (I ended up picking Frances Oldham Kelsey, Elizabeth Loftus, and Carl Elliott.)

My investigatory history entitled “Darkness’s Descent on the American Anthropological Association” is now in print (and available for free online) in Human Nature, and my other big investigatory history, on the Bailey book controversy (summary in the New York Times available here) is now also available online at Archives of Sexual Behavior.

Next year will see publication of several academic articles I’ve found very satisfying to write, including one on vaginas (and vags) for the Health and Humanities Reader being edited by Tess Jones, Les Friedman, and Delese Wear, and another on prenatal dexamethasone for the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry with Ellen Feder and Anne Tamar-Mattis for a special “queer bioethics” issue edited by Autumn and Lance.  (Lance and Autumn head up the innovative Queer Bioethics project known officially as “Bioethics, Sexuality, and Gender Identity.”)

In personal news, our pet rat Truffle joined his buddy Treacle in moving on to rat heaven. I miss him every time I cook something he would love. (His tastes are part of what I’d like to write about him.) The mate made a beautiful memorial stone to honor Truff, and when the snows let up, we will lay the stone next to Treacle’s (under the plumcot tree) in a service that includes those of our friends who put up with our love of rats.

As always, thanks to the mate for paying for half of all this, and thanks to my colleagues at the Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine for company, guidance, and support, and for the other half of the money!

1. ‣To see my short-form c.v., click here.
   

2. ‣To read about my mystique, click here.
   

3. ‣To see a running list of new pages on this site, click here.
   

Updates on my work