Short Abstract

Examining reproduction in times of crisis. This interdisciplinary panel explores how reproductive politics and practices shape and are shaped by contemporary polarizations, while revealing possibilities for solidarity amid global upheaval.

Long Abstract

In our contemporary crisis-laden world, reproduction has emerged as both a volatile site of polarizing politics and a mechanism for reproducing social divisions. As Ginsburg and Rapp (1995) argued, reproduction sits at the intersection of global and local politics, revealing how power operates through intimate life. Building on this, Briggs (2017) demonstrates that "all politics became reproductive politics"—reproduction underlies seemingly disparate struggles from welfare to immigration. As reproductive capacities are increasingly targeted in armed conflicts and systematic violence globally, we witness how what Mbembe (2003) termed necropolitics, and the creation of “death worlds”, does not only dictate who may live and who must die, but also determine who may reproduce. Morgan's (2019) concept of reproductive governance illuminates how diverse actors including states, religious institutions, NGOs and social movements, deploy controls, inducements, and injunctions to manage reproduction during upheavals.

From genocidal acts in Gaza targeting current and future populations through the destruction of the conditions of reproduction and, more directly, by targeting maternity wards and fertility centers, to systemic and widespread reproductive violence by Russian forces in the Ukraine, to neo-conservative abortion bans and closures of family planning support in the US, to rising migration barriers in Europe, contemporary crises reveal reproduction as a key battleground where competing visions of human futures collide. This panel will bring together papers examining diverse reproductive struggles across global contexts, exploring how reproductive experiences both reflect existing polarizations and forge unexpected solidarities transcending binary logics of inclusion/exclusion.

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