Race, Religion, and Reproductive Politics
Image: Screenshot from Personhood USA video of anti-abortion protesters marching in Washington, D.C.
Writing |
The research article "Racial Politics of Frozen Embryo Personhood in the US Antiabortion Movement," published in Transforming Anthropology in April 2019, examines how a branch of the U.S. antiabortion movement uses histories of racist oppression and movements for racial justice to advocate for the legal recognition of embryos as persons. Based on an examination of legal cases, promotional campaigns, and personal narratives from within the white-led movement for embryo personhood, this article argues that the recent wave of personhood activism strategically racializes embryos while erasing legacies of racism that devalue Black life. Read here.
The essay entitled "Jane Doe" published in Cultural Anthropology examines the seamless interface between antiabortion and anti-immigrant policy through the story of one 17-year-old migrant pregnant girl's legal fight to obtain an abortion while in US custody. Read here. This essay emerged from an inspiring panel of scholars at the 2017 American Anthropological Association meetings to discuss Reproductive Politics in the Age of Trump and Brexit. Our papers were published in the Openings & Retrospectives section of Cultural Anthropology's February 2019 issue. The entire journal is open source and available to read here -- it's a fantastic collection!
The research article "Making the Ethnic Embryos: Enacting Race in US Embryo Adoption" is published in Medical Anthropology in a 2019 special issue on race and reproduction co-edited by Natali Valdez and Daisy Deomampo. This article examines how embryo adoption professionals and participants produce 'ethnicity' as a quality inhering in frozen embryos slated for donation. It is is an outgrowth of participating in the Wenner-Gren Foundation workshop “Interrogating the Intersections of Race and Reproduction in Medicine, Science, and Technology" in February 2018 where I shared research on constructions of race within Christian embryo adoption programs. Read here.
A book review of Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America by David Cohen and Carole Joffe is published in the Fall 2020 issue of Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Read here.
The open access research article "'Our family portrait is a little hint of Heaven': Race, Religion, and Selective Reproduction in US 'Embryo Adoption'" is featured in the 2020 special issue of Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online co-edited by Rayna Rapp and Severine Mathieu. This article makes a case for how race/racism and religion intersect to shape how white evangelical users of assisted and selective reproduction technologies use them. The special issue is the result of a two-year workshop led by Rayna Rapp and Severine Mathieu called "Franco-American Reproductive Technologies Workshop." Read here.
The essay entitled "Jane Doe" published in Cultural Anthropology examines the seamless interface between antiabortion and anti-immigrant policy through the story of one 17-year-old migrant pregnant girl's legal fight to obtain an abortion while in US custody. Read here. This essay emerged from an inspiring panel of scholars at the 2017 American Anthropological Association meetings to discuss Reproductive Politics in the Age of Trump and Brexit. Our papers were published in the Openings & Retrospectives section of Cultural Anthropology's February 2019 issue. The entire journal is open source and available to read here -- it's a fantastic collection!
The research article "Making the Ethnic Embryos: Enacting Race in US Embryo Adoption" is published in Medical Anthropology in a 2019 special issue on race and reproduction co-edited by Natali Valdez and Daisy Deomampo. This article examines how embryo adoption professionals and participants produce 'ethnicity' as a quality inhering in frozen embryos slated for donation. It is is an outgrowth of participating in the Wenner-Gren Foundation workshop “Interrogating the Intersections of Race and Reproduction in Medicine, Science, and Technology" in February 2018 where I shared research on constructions of race within Christian embryo adoption programs. Read here.
A book review of Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America by David Cohen and Carole Joffe is published in the Fall 2020 issue of Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Read here.
The open access research article "'Our family portrait is a little hint of Heaven': Race, Religion, and Selective Reproduction in US 'Embryo Adoption'" is featured in the 2020 special issue of Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online co-edited by Rayna Rapp and Severine Mathieu. This article makes a case for how race/racism and religion intersect to shape how white evangelical users of assisted and selective reproduction technologies use them. The special issue is the result of a two-year workshop led by Rayna Rapp and Severine Mathieu called "Franco-American Reproductive Technologies Workshop." Read here.