Maayan Sudai is Visiting Research Fellow with the Harvard STS Program, an SJD candidate at Harvard Law School, and a Student Fellow in Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. Maayan’s current research examines the interaction between law, science and society, mainly through a critical lens and combining multiple disciplines, such as history of medicine, law and social change, health law and bioethics, and Science Technology and Society (STS) studies. After serving as a leading advocate for the intersex rights’ movement in Israel, Maayan’s dissertation explores the legal struggles of patient advocacy movements against medical institutions in the US.

Besides her legal education, Maayan received training in the history of science discipline and particularly in the field of gender analysis of science. After serving as an advocate for the Intersex patient advocacy movement in Israel and as a member of an international group reviewing the ethical, legal and cultural aspects of disorders in sex development (DSD), Maayan’s research looks at the Intersex Rights movement in the U.S. as a case study to explore the dynamic relationship between medical autonomy and legal authority when challenged by patient advocacy movements. More broadly, Maayan seeks to identify, describe and evaluate the legal tools which accommodate the participation of patients in biomedical policy making.

Before becoming a fellow with the STS program Maayan was a student Fellow in the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics in Harvard Law School. She holds both a B.A and an LL.B from the University of Haifa, as well as an LL.M from Harvard Law School. Maayan has served as a teaching assistant in the University of Haifa and Harvard University; she is the winner of the E. David Fischman Scholarship and a contributor to the “Bill of Health” blog.