Queer reproductive justice

Description

An event organised by Global Conversations Towards Queer Social Justice research network.

Theme 2: Queer reproductive justice

Reproductive justice provides a conceptual framework to pay attention not just to choice, but to the endemic social, political, and economic inequalities among different communities which shape individuals’ abilities to access a good life.
(Sharmila Rudrappa, Discounted Lives, 2015, p.170).

Speakers

• Reading and Discussion Group with the participation of:
• Camisha Russell (University of Oregon)
• Julieta Chaparro-Buitrago (University of Cambridge)

Abstract

In this reading and discussion group, we will ask how reproductive justice (RJ) scholarship and praxis can be mobilised to understand queer, trans, as well as peasant communities’ reproductive lives. We will discuss, respectively, what queer reproductive justice and decolonial reproductive justice may involve. We will ask, for example, how RJ can help us understand racial matching in gamete donation. As we consider queer reproductive justice (QRJ), we will discuss grassroots work on reproductive justice (RJ) as it has been formulated and used by communities subject to forced sterilization, economic deprivation and racism. We will discuss how coalitions can be built by queer, trans and peasant communities and reproductive justice activists and scholars.

Alongside a moderated discussion on the topics from the recommended readings, this session is also an opportunity to meet the Authors and reflect upon the writing process, including the commitments that may underpin ‘queer writing’ as well as ‘decolonial writing’. We encourage reading the recommended texts from Camisha and Julieta’s work below – but please do feel free to join us even if you have not had the time to read everything. – The Authors will kindly introduce their work briefly at the beginning of the session, we will moderate the discussion, and all participants will be most welcome to join this seminar discussion and re-imagine queer social justice together.

Recommended readings:

• Russell, Camisha. 2018. The Assisted Reproduction of Race. Indiana University Press. Chapter 5 ‘Race and choice in the era of liberal eugenics’ pp. 132-158; and additionally ‘Conclusion’ pp. 160-168 – available as an e-book in Cambridge University online library. * For those interested, we also recommend an additional further reading: Russell, Camisha. 2018. Rights holders or refugees? Do gay men need reproductive justice? Reproductive BioMedicine & Society Online 7: 131-140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbms.2018.07.001 (Open access)
• Chaparro-Buitrago, Julieta. 2021. ‘Sterile Bodies: Women’s Narratives of Forced Sterilization as Delinking from Reproductive Rights’ – The article will be circulated to the participants upon registration.

Download the event poster.