Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Office: Seibert Humanities, rm. 100B
Phone: 727-864-8214
Fax: 727-864-7995
Email Professor Speier

Degrees

Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh, Anthropology
B.S., University of California-Berkeley, Anthropology & English

Courses offered

Introduction to Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Medical Anthropology, Anthropological Research Methods, Culture, Politics and Food, Anthropological Theory, and Gender: Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Research

I am interested in health tourism within the European Union, with a particular focus on the multiple motivations for different groups to travel to the Czech Republic for health reasons. My previous research has focused on the transformation of balneotherapy, a traditional Czech healing technique that involves complex drinking and bathing therapies, as it was increasingly being incorporated into the development of a Czech health tourism industry. My current research examines British citizens traveling to Prague in search of more affordable aesthetic surgery, and Americans traveling throughout the Czech Republic for reproductive tourism.

Publications

Speier, Amy, Under Review, “Consumers and Brokers: Americans Navigate Journeys of Infertility,” in ReproMedicine Online.

Speier, Amy, Under Review, "Reproductive Tourism: Health Care Crisis Reifies Globalized Stratified Reproduction,” by AltaMira Press.

Speier, Amy, 2011, “Health Tourism in a Czech Health Spa,” in Anthropology and Medicine, Vol.18, no.1, April, pp.125-136.

Speier, Amy and Andrea Whittaker, 2010, “’Cycling overseas’: Care, commodification and stratification in cross-border reproductive travel,” Medical Anthropology: Cross-cultural Studies in Health and Illness, vol.29, no.4., p.363.

Speier, Amy, 2008, “Czech Balneotherapy: Border Medicine and Health Tourism,” in Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, Vol. 17: 145-159.