Reproductive Rights International Network; Arts and Humanities Research Council-Project ‚Inventing Reproductive Rights: Sex, Bodies and Population, 1945-1995‘ (Web)

Time: 09.-10.06.2022
Venue: Glasgow
Proposals by: 07.02.2022

At this conference, the paritcipants explore the emergence of notions of reproductive rights, reproductive justice and reproductive choice and autonomy over the course of the second half of the 20th Century. Papers will be focused on the changing status of the reproductive body in public, medical and legal discourse throughout this period, taking post-World War 2 reconstruction as the starting point and the definition of reproductive rights by the United Nations at the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994 as the endpoint. The participants will analyse the emergence of notions of reproductive rights against the backdrop of changing gender roles, sexual revolutions, processes of medicalisation, changing forms of mass communication, and wider contexts such as decolonisation, the emergence of the UN system and human rights discourse, and the globalisation of demographic debate.

Focusing on topics such as birth control, family planning, abortion, assisted reproductive technologies and sterilisation, the paritcipants will explore political, expert and public discourse as well as intimate practices and norms surrounding bodily autonomy, family, and sexual practice. The organizers ask presenters to engage with the key historical shifts in this period: the medicalisation of reproductive bodies, the feminisation of reproductive choice and responsibility, the changing notions of human rights, and the hierarchisation of reproductive subjects according to social markers such as race, social class and ability.

Presenters are encouraged to take into consideration more than one locality or country through a comparative, transnational or global approach. Papers tackling contemporary issues are welcome, but they should engage with longer-term historical developments or genealogies. Full papers should be no more than 15 minutes long. At the conference, papers are presented and then discussed by a discussant, followed by wider debate.

Participants are welcome to submit panel proposals with 3-4 papers. Please indicate clearly which proposals together form a panel, and identify the title of the panel and one convenor who will be one of the paper authors. Read more and source … (Web)