Alka Menon

Alka Menon conducts research at the intersection of race, medicine, and markets. Broadly, she is interested in the effects of globalization and medical consumerism on physician authority and healthcare. Currently, she is working on a book project on cosmetic surgery in transnational perspective, focusing on the multiethnic cases of the U.S. and Malaysia. Stemming from this research, she has also written on online reviews of physicians and the role of physicians as cultural gatekeepers and intermediaries. Her award-winning work has been published in Ethnic and Racial Studies and Social Science & Medicine, and has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Social Science Research Council.

Menon received her B.A. in the Biological Sciences from Cornell University, where she was also a College Scholar, and her Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University. Her research and teaching interests span sociology, science and technology studies, legal studies, racial and ethnic studies, gender studies, and qualitative methods. At Yale, she is also a Research Fellow at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies.