Reproductive Violence

Datum
02. Sep­tem­ber – 03. Sep­tem­ber 2024 

Con­fer­ence at Uni­ver­si­ty of Edinburgh

„Repro­duc­tive Vio­lence” Conference
2nd-3rd Sep­tem­ber 2024
Uni­ver­si­ty of Edinburgh

Keynote: Pro­fes­sor Sarah Ihmoud

In this con­fer­ence we will explore under­stand­ings of repro­duc­tive vio­lence, in the light of the repro­duc­tive jus­tice frame­work, as a vio­la­tion of bod­i­ly auton­o­my and the rights to have chil­dren, to not have chil­dren, and to raise any chil­dren one choos­es to have in a safe and healthy environment.

Repro­duc­tive vio­lence is often sub­sumed with­in broad­er cat­e­gories of sex­u­al and gen­der-based vio­lence. The atten­tion that sex­u­al vio­lence has gained on human rights and tran­si­tion­al jus­tice agen­das since the 1990s has not been extend­ed to under­stand­ing and address­ing vio­la­tions of people’s repro­duc­tive auton­o­my, free­dom, and futures. Despite the devel­op­ment of the repro­duc­tive jus­tice frame­work in 1994, much aca­d­e­m­ic and activist work remains focused large­ly on con­tra­cep­tives and abor­tion, most­ly with a choice rhetoric and in nar­row geo­graph­ic and socioe­co­nom­ic contexts.

In this two-day in-per­son con­fer­ence, we join transna­tion­al fem­i­nist ini­tia­tives that agi­tate for com­pre­hen­sive under­stand­ings of repro­duc­tive vio­lence and repro­duc­tive jus­tice. We seek to bring togeth­er schol­ars at dif­fer­ent career stages to engage in con­ver­sa­tions that can con­tribute to a nuanced under­stand­ing of how the repro­duc­tive lives of peo­ple, par­tic­u­lar­ly racialised and fem­i­nised bod­ies, have been affect­ed, often specif­i­cal­ly targeted.

We invite abstracts that speak to the themes and ques­tions of the con­fer­ence, includ­ing: In what ways does repro­duc­tion emerge as a site of vio­lence, exploita­tion, and resis­tance? How do ide­olo­gies of moth­er­hood and prac­tices of moth­er­ing con­fig­ure repro­duc­tive vio­lence and resis­tance? How does the nat­u­ral­iza­tion of repro­duc­tive labour shape embod­ied expe­ri­ences of repro­duc­tion? How do state and non-state actors assume con­trol and exert coer­cion over repro­duc­tive bod­ies? How is repro­duc­tion sit­u­at­ed with­in leg­isla­tive and pol­i­cy frame­works con­cern­ing con­texts of war, geno­cide, and oth­er human­i­tar­i­an emer­gen­cies? How are notions of gen­der (re)produced through acts of repro­duc­tive vio­lence? Papers may speak to the fol­low­ing themes in rela­tion to repro­duc­tive violence:

– Con­flict and violence
– Colo­nial­ism and occupation
– Environmental/climate crises
– Dis­abil­i­ty justice
– Incar­cer­a­tion and detention
– Migra­tion and displacement
– Pover­ty and precarity
– Strug­gles for repa­ra­tions, rights, and justice
– Obstet­ric vio­lence and racism

Con­fer­ence Organisers

Dr Tatiana Sanchez Par­ra is a Marie Skłodows­ka-Curie Actions Fel­low in the School of Social and Polit­i­cal Sci­ence at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Edin­burgh. Tatiana’s research is sit­u­at­ed at the inter­sec­tion of fem­i­nist stud­ies, socio-legal stud­ies, and Latin Amer­i­can stud­ies. She works on issues relat­ed to fem­i­nist peace­build­ing, repro­duc­tive jus­tice, and repro­duc­tive vio­lence in con­texts of war and polit­i­cal tran­si­tions. Her cur­rent project, ‚Advanc­ing Gen­der Jus­tice, Tack­ling Repro­duc­tive Vio­lence: Forced Par­ent­hood in Con­texts of War’, focus­es on the expe­ri­ences of cis­gen­der women and trans­gen­der men who are par­ent­ing chil­dren born of con­flict-relat­ed sex­u­al vio­lence in Colombia.

Dr Lucy Lowe is a senior lec­tur­er in med­ical anthro­pol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Edin­burgh. Her work illu­mi­nates how prac­tices and ide­olo­gies of gen­der, moth­er­hood, and repro­duc­tion are cen­tred in process­es of migra­tion and asy­lum. She cur­rent­ly leads the Mater­ni­ty, Migra­tion, and Asy­lum in Scot­land (MAMAS) project, which explores how preg­nan­cy and moth­er­hood affect refugee and asy­lum-seek­ing women’s expe­ri­ences of migra­tion and settlement.

Keynote: Pro­fes­sor Sarah Ihmoud

Sarah Ihmoud is a Chi­cana-Pales­tin­ian anthro­pol­o­gist who works to uplift the lived expe­ri­ences, his­to­ries, and polit­i­cal con­tri­bu­tions of Pales­tin­ian women and Pales­tin­ian fem­i­nism. She is a found­ing mem­ber of the Pales­tin­ian Fem­i­nist Col­lec­tive, an exec­u­tive board mem­ber of Insaniyy­at, the Soci­ety of Pales­tin­ian Anthro­pol­o­gists, and is assis­tant pro­fes­sor of anthro­pol­o­gy at the Col­lege of the Holy Cross in Worces­ter, MA.

Please send abstracts (250 words max) and bios (100 words max) to lucy.lowe@ed.ac.uk and tsanchez@ed.ac.uk by 30th May 2024.

Bur­saries

There are a lim­it­ed num­ber of £100 bur­saries avail­able for pre­sen­ters. If you would like to apply for a bur­sary, please also include a para­graph in your appli­ca­tion (100 words max) clear­ly stat­ing whether you have access to fund­ing, and how attend­ing the con­fer­ence could con­tribute to your work and cre­ative pursuits.