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Welcome to the Reproduction Research Group!

We are a lively community of scholars and students interested in the social study of reproduction. Our interdisciplinary group regularly comes together to examine the complex social, cultural, and political dimensions of reproduction. We also host a range of outward-facing events for reproduction professionals, including the Reproduction Salon, film screenings and the Reproductive Justice After Roe seminar series.

Our work analyses a wide range of reproductive technologies, actively engages with reproductive politics and is driven by a commitment to reproductive justice. Together, we create a supportive and inclusive academic community that values collaboration and critical reflection on reproduction.

People

Dominique Béhague

Visiting Reader in Global Health & Anthropology

Dörte  Bemme

Lecturer in Society and Mental Health

Silvia Camporesi

Visiting Professor in Bioethics

Carmel Cardona

PhD student

Jennifer Fraser

Research Associate

Activities

Neon sign with the words 'Repro Salon'
Rayna Rapp Reproduction Salon 2024

In 2024, the Reproduction Salon presents the legendary Professor Rayna Rapp from New York University to give a lecture on "Stratified Chaos: Reproductive Healthcare in a post-Dobbs USA". The lecture will be followed by a networking event for everyone working on reproduction, be it reproductive technologies, abortion, stem cells, contraception, demography or developmental biology. It is a platform for scholars, writers, clinicians, activists, regulators, podcasters and PhD students in the field to come together, showcase their work, make future plans, strategise and reconnect.

Reproduction salon picture
Reproduction Salon/Reproduction Immersion

The Reproduction Salon in 2023 also featured the Reproduction Immersion: an ephemeral space using lighting, interactive installations, and immersive design to make new reproduction collectives. Featuring the reproduction fashion show, reproductive dreaming workshops and a DJ. The event was open to everyone working on reproduction, including scholars, writers, clinicians, activists, regulators, podcasters and PhD students.

Abortion Protest March in Washington
Abortion at the Borderlines Conference

April 2023 - The topic of this conference is now more urgent than ever. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022 abortion has been catapulted to the centre of the Western political stage. While the United States, as well as European countries such as Poland, have been experiencing a rollback of abortion rights, Latin America has seen a transnational momentum towards the decriminalisation of abortion, most recently in Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia. Abortion at the Borderlines presents current research on transgressive abortion politics, practices and imaginations – be they spatial, social, legal or cultural. This conference is run in collaboration with the Reproduction research cluster, Feminist Perspectives, and the Gender Studies Network at King's.

A group of women in black t-shirts and green neckerchiefs join a protest.
Reproductive Justice seminar series

This seminar series follows the historic decision of the US Supreme Court to overturn the landmark 1973 abortion rights decision of Roe v. Wade on 24 June 2022, and the most significant revision of UK fertility law (HFEA) in decades. Following this seismic shift in the reproductive landscape of the US and, by extension, across the globe, it is more important than ever to provide a robust response as an academic community through both impactful critical analysis and strategic community building across disciplinary boundaries and institutional borders. The Reproductive Justice Seminar Series is co-hosted by the King’s Gender Studies Network and GHSM Reproduction Research Cluster.

india
‘Old is Gold’: Rethinking Marital Intimacy and Commitment through Assisted Reproduction in India

May 2023 - Emerging from ethnographic fieldwork in North and South India, this seminar engages with the uses and abuses of marriage and commitment as tropes to bolster the desire for seeking assisted reproduction in India. The focus is on two demographics navigating marriage and fertility: the elderly postmenopausal couples seeking assisted conception to overturn decades of childlessness; and the newly married young city dwellers who are finding it difficult to conceive ‘naturally’.

crowded street
Book launch: Divided by Dr Annabel Sowemimo

April 2023 - Here, in an essential and searingly truthful account, Annabel Sowemimo unravels the colonial roots of modern medicine. Tackling systemic racism, hidden histories and healthcare myths, Sowemimo recounts her own experiences as a doctor, patient and activist. Divided exposes the racial biases of medicine that affect our everyday lives and provides an illuminating - and incredibly necessary - insight into how our world works, and who it works for.

International Women's Day 3
Looking for common grounds to understand and address obstetric violence from health practitioners and women's perspective

April 2023 - Focussing upon Peru, this seminar identifies contexts and practices that health professionals recognize as problematic or questionable, and therefore susceptible to meet obstetric violence definitions and typologies developed from women's rights perspectives.

A group of women in black t-shirts and green neckerchiefs join a protest.
From Court to Clinical Trials: the Impact of New Technologies of Life on Women’s Sexual Rights in Mexico and Latin America... and Vice Versa

March 2023 - This presentation critically looks at clinical reproductive trials (MRTs and Uterine Lavage) and court cases involving new reproductive technologies (i.e., Artavia Murillo et al. vs Costa Rica). It asks how, during the last decades, clinical and court trials have contested, negotiated or silenced the meanings of life, human dignity, motherhood, the private and kinship and how the nation gets to be inscribed in these meanings.

Cinema Header
Film Screening: Freezing Fertility at The Prince Charles Cinema

January 2023 - Shot during the Covid lockdowns across the UK, Spain and the Netherlands, Freezing Fertility is a new feature documentary that paints a portrait of the dilemmas that today's generation face as they navigate new technologies and a highly-privatised fertility industry. The screening took place at The Prince Charles Theatre in Leicester Square,as part of the Reproductive Justice after Roe project and funded by the FRIF and King's Together, King's College London.

Events

24May

Rayna Rapp Reproduction Salon

This year's Reproduction Salon features a lecture by Professor Rayna Rapp, New York University, on 'Reproductive Healthcare in a post-Dobbs USA'.

Please note: this event has passed.

02May

Book launch: The Politics of Potential

The Politics of Potential examines how new scientific understandings of the developmental origins of health and disease constitute new forms of...

Please note: this event has passed.

26Mar

Book Talk - 'Making Gaybies: Queer Reproduction and Multiracial Feeling'

Making Gaybies is a vital account of racialised intimacy in contemporary queer family making in multiracial Australia.

Please note: this event has passed.

15Feb

Book launch: 'Viruses and Reproductive Injustice: Zika in Brazil'

Launch of a book by Professor Ilana Löwy, exploring health disparities and reproductive injustice revealed by the Zika outbreak in Brazil.

Please note: this event has passed.

11May

‘Old is Gold’: Rethinking Marital Intimacy and Commitment through Assisted Reproduction in India

This seminar engages with the uses and abuses of marriage and commitment as tropes to bolster the desire for seeking assisted reproduction in India.

Please note: this event has passed.

Film & Media

Freezing Fertility
Freezing Fertility

Lucy van de Wiel, author of Freezing Fertility (the book) and chair of the Reproduction Research Cluster, was part of the recent feature documentary Freezing Fertility. Shot during the Covid lockdowns across the UK, Spain and the Netherlands, Freezing Fertility paints a portrait of the dilemmas that today's generation face as they navigate new technologies and a highly-privatised fertility industry.

People

Dominique Béhague

Visiting Reader in Global Health & Anthropology

Dörte  Bemme

Lecturer in Society and Mental Health

Silvia Camporesi

Visiting Professor in Bioethics

Carmel Cardona

PhD student

Jennifer Fraser

Research Associate

Activities

Neon sign with the words 'Repro Salon'
Rayna Rapp Reproduction Salon 2024

In 2024, the Reproduction Salon presents the legendary Professor Rayna Rapp from New York University to give a lecture on "Stratified Chaos: Reproductive Healthcare in a post-Dobbs USA". The lecture will be followed by a networking event for everyone working on reproduction, be it reproductive technologies, abortion, stem cells, contraception, demography or developmental biology. It is a platform for scholars, writers, clinicians, activists, regulators, podcasters and PhD students in the field to come together, showcase their work, make future plans, strategise and reconnect.

Reproduction salon picture
Reproduction Salon/Reproduction Immersion

The Reproduction Salon in 2023 also featured the Reproduction Immersion: an ephemeral space using lighting, interactive installations, and immersive design to make new reproduction collectives. Featuring the reproduction fashion show, reproductive dreaming workshops and a DJ. The event was open to everyone working on reproduction, including scholars, writers, clinicians, activists, regulators, podcasters and PhD students.

Abortion Protest March in Washington
Abortion at the Borderlines Conference

April 2023 - The topic of this conference is now more urgent than ever. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022 abortion has been catapulted to the centre of the Western political stage. While the United States, as well as European countries such as Poland, have been experiencing a rollback of abortion rights, Latin America has seen a transnational momentum towards the decriminalisation of abortion, most recently in Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia. Abortion at the Borderlines presents current research on transgressive abortion politics, practices and imaginations – be they spatial, social, legal or cultural. This conference is run in collaboration with the Reproduction research cluster, Feminist Perspectives, and the Gender Studies Network at King's.

A group of women in black t-shirts and green neckerchiefs join a protest.
Reproductive Justice seminar series

This seminar series follows the historic decision of the US Supreme Court to overturn the landmark 1973 abortion rights decision of Roe v. Wade on 24 June 2022, and the most significant revision of UK fertility law (HFEA) in decades. Following this seismic shift in the reproductive landscape of the US and, by extension, across the globe, it is more important than ever to provide a robust response as an academic community through both impactful critical analysis and strategic community building across disciplinary boundaries and institutional borders. The Reproductive Justice Seminar Series is co-hosted by the King’s Gender Studies Network and GHSM Reproduction Research Cluster.

india
‘Old is Gold’: Rethinking Marital Intimacy and Commitment through Assisted Reproduction in India

May 2023 - Emerging from ethnographic fieldwork in North and South India, this seminar engages with the uses and abuses of marriage and commitment as tropes to bolster the desire for seeking assisted reproduction in India. The focus is on two demographics navigating marriage and fertility: the elderly postmenopausal couples seeking assisted conception to overturn decades of childlessness; and the newly married young city dwellers who are finding it difficult to conceive ‘naturally’.

crowded street
Book launch: Divided by Dr Annabel Sowemimo

April 2023 - Here, in an essential and searingly truthful account, Annabel Sowemimo unravels the colonial roots of modern medicine. Tackling systemic racism, hidden histories and healthcare myths, Sowemimo recounts her own experiences as a doctor, patient and activist. Divided exposes the racial biases of medicine that affect our everyday lives and provides an illuminating - and incredibly necessary - insight into how our world works, and who it works for.

International Women's Day 3
Looking for common grounds to understand and address obstetric violence from health practitioners and women's perspective

April 2023 - Focussing upon Peru, this seminar identifies contexts and practices that health professionals recognize as problematic or questionable, and therefore susceptible to meet obstetric violence definitions and typologies developed from women's rights perspectives.

A group of women in black t-shirts and green neckerchiefs join a protest.
From Court to Clinical Trials: the Impact of New Technologies of Life on Women’s Sexual Rights in Mexico and Latin America... and Vice Versa

March 2023 - This presentation critically looks at clinical reproductive trials (MRTs and Uterine Lavage) and court cases involving new reproductive technologies (i.e., Artavia Murillo et al. vs Costa Rica). It asks how, during the last decades, clinical and court trials have contested, negotiated or silenced the meanings of life, human dignity, motherhood, the private and kinship and how the nation gets to be inscribed in these meanings.

Cinema Header
Film Screening: Freezing Fertility at The Prince Charles Cinema

January 2023 - Shot during the Covid lockdowns across the UK, Spain and the Netherlands, Freezing Fertility is a new feature documentary that paints a portrait of the dilemmas that today's generation face as they navigate new technologies and a highly-privatised fertility industry. The screening took place at The Prince Charles Theatre in Leicester Square,as part of the Reproductive Justice after Roe project and funded by the FRIF and King's Together, King's College London.

Events

24May

Rayna Rapp Reproduction Salon

This year's Reproduction Salon features a lecture by Professor Rayna Rapp, New York University, on 'Reproductive Healthcare in a post-Dobbs USA'.

Please note: this event has passed.

02May

Book launch: The Politics of Potential

The Politics of Potential examines how new scientific understandings of the developmental origins of health and disease constitute new forms of...

Please note: this event has passed.

26Mar

Book Talk - 'Making Gaybies: Queer Reproduction and Multiracial Feeling'

Making Gaybies is a vital account of racialised intimacy in contemporary queer family making in multiracial Australia.

Please note: this event has passed.

15Feb

Book launch: 'Viruses and Reproductive Injustice: Zika in Brazil'

Launch of a book by Professor Ilana Löwy, exploring health disparities and reproductive injustice revealed by the Zika outbreak in Brazil.

Please note: this event has passed.

11May

‘Old is Gold’: Rethinking Marital Intimacy and Commitment through Assisted Reproduction in India

This seminar engages with the uses and abuses of marriage and commitment as tropes to bolster the desire for seeking assisted reproduction in India.

Please note: this event has passed.

Film & Media

Freezing Fertility
Freezing Fertility

Lucy van de Wiel, author of Freezing Fertility (the book) and chair of the Reproduction Research Cluster, was part of the recent feature documentary Freezing Fertility. Shot during the Covid lockdowns across the UK, Spain and the Netherlands, Freezing Fertility paints a portrait of the dilemmas that today's generation face as they navigate new technologies and a highly-privatised fertility industry.

Group lead

Contact us

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