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Surbhi ShrivastavaGraduate Student

Advisor: Ellen Idler

Degrees

  • Master of Public Health (MPH), Tata Institute of Social Science, India
  • Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS), Manipal University, India

General Research Areas

  • Medical Sociology
  • Reproduction, Sex & Gender Inequality

  • Global Health

Current Research

My dissertation, The Making of Cesareans: A Sociological Study of Surgical Births in India and Brazil, uses a cross-national multi-method approach to argue that dominant narratives framing cesareans as primarily driven by affluence and social privilege overlook deeper structures behind surgical births. Drawing on three distinct sources of data across three empirical chapters, I demonstrate the role of specific sociocultural contexts in shaping the coexistence of overuse and underuse of cesareans in these nations.

Recent Publications

  1. Shrivastava, Surbhi, and Heeju Sohn. 2025. “Overlapping social structures behind Brazil’s cesarean section births: a decomposition analysis.”PLoS One 20(6): e0325251.
  2. Roy, Piya, Muthusamy Sivakami, andSurbhi Shrivastava. 2025 “Women’s Narratives of Disrespect and Abuse during Facility-Based Childbirth in Kolkata, India.” Journal of Biosocial Science 57(2):263–78.
  3. Shrivastava, Surbhi, and Muthusamy Sivakami. 2024. “Gender, Relationship Dynamics, and Vertical Transmission of HIV in Delhi.” Pp. 1–30 in Handbook on Sex, Gender and Health. Springer, Singapore. 
  4. Kanougiya, Suman, and Surbhi Shrivastava. 2024. “Intimate Partner Violence and Mental Health Outcomes in South Asia.” Pp. 1–41 in Handbook on Sex, Gender and Health. Springer, Singapore.
  5. Dore, Emily C.,Surbhi Shrivastava, and Patricia Homan. 2024. “Structural Sexism and Preventive Health Care Use in the United States.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 65(1):2–19.