Short Abstract

This panel decolonises SRH, challenging colonial logics of population control. We explore how researchers, policymakers and grassroots agencies from the Global South reclaim bodily autonomy and forge new futures for reproductive justice, moving beyond top-down development models.

Description

This panel focuses on Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) as a critical area of debate shaped by colonial histories of demographic control and the top-down imposition of Western biomedical norms. This legacy perpetuates power imbalances and marginalises indigenous and local knowledge systems. Moving beyond critique, this panel explores the concrete ways in which grassroots power and agency are being asserted to decolonise the field.

This panel invites contributions exploring how social movements, indigenous midwives, queer rights activists, community organisers, and others are forging alternative SRH futures grounded in reproductive justice and collective wellbeing. The panel seeks to stimulate debate on key issues in the field. The questions below are intended as prompts, and proposals that engage with the broader theme of decolonising SRH from other perspectives are warmly welcomed:

How are neo-colonial power dynamics in funding and policy being resisted and dismantled?

What evidence showcases the impact and sustainability of community-led models of care versus traditional top-down approaches?

How do intersecting crises, from climate change to digital surveillance, reshape the struggle for reproductive justice?

A final key question is whether a decolonial approach requires moving beyond the SRH "development" framework entirely, towards paradigms of sovereignty, healing, and liberation.

Submissions are strongly encouraged from both academics and practitioners, and contributions using diverse methodologies are welcome. By bridging rigorous analysis with on-the-ground experience, this panel will create a vital space for radically rethinking SRH, not as a development intervention, but as a fundamental practice of justice.

This Panel has 2 pending paper proposals.
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