Rate My Professor Faye Ginsburg

Ginsburg's research interests encompass social anthropology, ethnographic film, the ethnography of media, indigenous media, social movements in the United States, and disability. Her long-term projects include studies of indigenous filmmakers mediating culture, particularly in Aboriginal Australia, disabilities in a digital age, and cultural innovators addressing learning disabilities, frequently in collaboration with Rayna Rapp. Notable publications include her seminal book Contested Lives: The Abortion Debate in an American Community (University of California Press, 1989; second edition, 1998), co-edited volumes such as Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction (1995), Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain (2002), and Disability Worlds (Duke University Press, 2024). Forthcoming works feature How to Be Disabled in a Pandemic (NYU Press, 2025, edited volume) and Mediating Culture: Indigenous Identity in a Digital Age (Duke University Press).

Ginsburg has garnered major awards and honors, including the MacArthur Fellowship (1994–1999), John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (1991–1992), election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2025), the American Sociological Association's Sociology of Culture Book Award (1992) for Contested Lives, and the Society for Medical Anthropology's Eileen Basker Memorial Award (1990). Her scholarship has appeared in leading journals including Cultural Anthropology, Current Anthropology, and Film Quarterly. She has organized conferences, screenings, and seminars, advised the Reelabilities: NY Disabilities Film Festival, and served as Vice-President of the Dysautonomia Foundation. Through her foundational programs, curatorial efforts, and extensive publications, Ginsburg has profoundly influenced the fields of anthropology, media studies, and disability studies.