Anne Goff

Background

About Anne Goff

In my work as a philosopher, I study how contemporary biotechnologies transform concepts, practices, and norms around life and reproduction. My work lies in the interdisciplinary fields of bioethics and STS. I use the tools of philosophy, ethnography, and social sciences as well as collaborating with biologists. My current focuses on an emerging stem cell technology that aims to create eggs and sperm in the lab, and is called in vitro gametogenesis. I am interested in understanding how this technology transforms our understanding of germ cells and reproduction and raises new ethical and social questions for assisted reproductive technologies, while being itself shaped by norms and concepts around life and reproduction. This work is grounded in laboratory observations and an empirical study in the general public. I am also interested in developing non-dualistics understanding of human and animal life. My first book, Human Animal, published in French in 2020 (Vrin), developed an account of human and animal forms of life as both biological and cultural, drawing on insights from Wittgenstein. Initially trained in France, I spent the last 10 years in California and recently relocated in France. This year, I am a research fellow at the Paris Institute for Advanced Studies.