Anna Wexler

University of Pennsylvania

Anna Wexler received her Ph.D. in 2017 from the HASTS (History, Anthropology, Science, Technology & Society) Program at MIT, where she examined the ethical, legal, and social implications of emerging neurotechnology, with a particular focus on do-it-yourself and direct-to-consumer electrical brain stimulation. At Penn, she will extend her work to address the ethical and regulatory challenges raised by the full spectrum of interventions used in the home to modify brain function. She also plans to explore how do-it-yourself movements, direct-to-consumer health products, and citizen science initiatives are disrupting traditional models of medicine and science. From 2015-2016, Anna was a visiting scholar at the Center for Neuroscience and Society at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to her return to academia, Anna spent several years working as documentary filmmaker and science writer; she co-directed and co-produced the feature documentary Unorthodox (2013). She received a dual BS from MIT in Brain and Cognitive Science, and in Humanities and Science with a focus in Writing and Neuroscience.