A Tale of Two Surrogates: A Graphic Narrative on Assisted Reproduction is a rich and illuminating exploration of the complicated emotional, medical, legal, and ethical issues surrounding assisted reproduction. Based on more than a decade of research conducted by Elly Teman, PhD, and Zsuzsa Berend, PhD, this book presents, in an accessible and entertaining graphic novel format, the intertwined stories of two fictional women who decide to become gestational surrogates. The experiences of the two characters, Jenn, from California, and Dana, from Tel Aviv, highlight various paths, interpretations, and experiences that are common in surrogacy.
HBI is delighted to have supported Teman's and Berend's work with a Research Award in 2022 and that Teman continued her research and writing while an HBI Research Associate. After receiving the award, Teman and Berend shared with HBI how their work came together.
Elly Teman is an associate professor of medical anthropology in the Dept. of Behavioral Sciences at Ruppin Academic Center, Israel. She is the author of an ethnography on gestational surrogacy in Israel entitled Birthing a Mother: The Surrogate Body and the Pregnant Self which won three book prizes from the American Anthropological Association. Zsuzsa Berend teaches courses on economic sociology and the sociology departmental honors thesis seminar at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her book, The Online World of Surrogacy, was published by Berghahn Books in 2016.
A Tale of Two Surrogates is available at Penn State University Press and Amazon.
