'Menstrual Illness in Northern New York: Power and Perils of Transnational Feminist Research in Rural America'

The "North Country" typically denotes seven counties in Northern New York State, running from the eastern shore of Lake Ontario to the western shore of Lake Champlain along the Canadian border. The North Country today is an economically depressed region, with poor health outcomes and high rates of addiction and foster care. There are only four primary care providers per 10,000 people - less than half NYS and national average. For women’s health the picture is even bleaker. Northern New York has only one OBGYN for every 6000 people, and some counties have none. In this presentation, I analyze a wealth of primary statistical data and testimonies of menstruators and healthcare workers to argue that we need to urgently cast menstrual dysregulation in rural America as a serious crisis in public health.

My research on menstrual illness and the growing crisis of care in the North Country is shaped by two decades of interdisciplinary research across multiple linguistic and cultural barriers with educators and incest survivors in India and Turkey. This presentation will therefore also consider the subversive power that we might derive from shifting the feminist gaze emanating from academic institutions in the global North  back to its proverbial heartland in North America, as well as the joys of transdisciplinary collaborations, and the struggles of conducting rural women’s health research and advocacy in America today.

About the speaker

Dr. Akanksha Misra is an associate professor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at SUNY Plattsburgh, New York. She received her Ph.D. in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies from the University of Washington in 2020. She has an M.A. in Cultural Studies from Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey and a Bachelor’s of Engineering degree from India.

Her master’s thesis examined workings of feminist organizations in Turkey and India working with adult survivors of incest. Her doctoral dissertation research explored the creation of sexual citizenship in schools in India and Turkey. She has published articles and book chapters on topics such as sexualized violence, sexuality education, sensual pedagogy, and the phenomenology of gender.

Her current projects are dedicated to rethinking the politics and framing of menstruation and reimagining pedagogy through the desires and labor of transnational mothering bodies. She is currently working on her book project, An American Pandemic: Menstrual Illness in Rural NY, under advance contract with SUNY Press. When not active in several social justice causes in her local community and in raising children, she loves to hike, dance, swim, read fiction, and visit Istanbul!