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Cambridge Reproduction

 

The Cambridge Reproduction Forum is a termly, themed event that provides a relaxed opportunity for Cambridge Reproduction members to meet and share current research. Events include a mixture of flash talks, longer presentations and interdisciplinary dialogues and are followed by a networking reception.

Transpositions: a Cambridge Reproduction Forum 

When: 11 June 2024 
Where: Sainsbury Laboratory, 11 Bateman Street, Cambridge. 

Join us for an interdisciplinary exploration of plant scientist Barbara McClintock’s fundamental idea of chromosome ‘crossing over’.

Registration now open

This Forum draws connections between different ways of reproducing life – in plants, in humans, and in art – to explore ideas about natural biology, transbiology and their connection to reproduction.

Two interdisciplinary conversations – about ‘crossing over’, and about queer reproduction – bring together researchers from genetics, plant sciences, sociology and history of science to consider how McClintock’s revolutionary idea has resonances that go beyond botany.

The event concludes with a private preview screening of the film Transpositions, which celebrates Barbara McClintock’s life and work, a panel discussion with the creative and academic team behind the film, and a drinks reception.

Programme

15:00    Introduction and welcome
15:15    Interdisciplinary conversation: ‘Chromosomal transposition'
16:00    Tea break
16:30    Interdisciplinary conversation: ‘Quer(y)ing Reproduction and Transbiology’
17:15    Break
17:30    Private preview of the film Transpositions
17:45    Interdisciplinary conversation: Transposition on film
18:30    Drinks reception and networking

Speakers include: 

  • Professor Sarah Franklin (Reproductive Sociology Research Group)
  • Professor Ian Henderson (Plant Sciences)
  • Dr Dmitriy Myelnikov (History & Philosophy of Science)
  • Dr Lucy van de Wiel (King’s College London)
  • Professor Staffan Müller-Wille (History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences)
  • Alastair McColl (Animation Director)
  • Lucian M. Stephenson (lgbtq@cam Programme Co-ordinator)
  • Alexandra Dallaire (Future Leader Fellow | Comparative Fungal Biology)

Registration now open

Sainsbury Laboratory - map and directions

The entrance to the lab is next to St Mary's School's Art Centre (not the main St Mary’s School entrance) at 47 Bateman Street (What3words ref ///upon.elite.really.)  The gravel driveway next to the building leads to the main gates of the Lab. Please ring security from the main gates- security will let you through, after which, if you turn left, the Lab will be up the driveway on your right. Access to the laboratory does not mean access to the Botanic Gardens, and separate admission fee will need to be paid for at the front desk of the garden.

If you would like to propose a topic for a future Forum, please contact Christina Rozeik (coordinator@repro.cam.ac.uk).

 

Past Cambridge Reproduction Fora

Thicker Than Blood: kinship, its multiplicity and entanglements

13 February 2024

This Forum brought together researchers from plant systematics, evolution and ecology, human evolutionary genomics, family research, and comparative linguistics to present perspectives on how kinship is measured, analysed and understood, what problems and paradoxes it presents, and whether there is a unitary perspective from which its multiplicity can be grasped.

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The Reproductive Turn

18 October 2023

This Forum invited Cambridge researchers to reflect on the status of reproduction in our fields: what this is, what it should be, and what difference change could make.

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Cambridge Reproduction Forum: Michaelmas Term 2022

18 October 2022

This term's Forum was a series of flash talks about reproduction research happening around Cambridge, and an introduction to this year's programme of events and activities from Cambridge Reproduciton. 

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Ectogenesis: ethics, rights, regulation

4 May 2022

This meeting considered recent progress in achieving partial ectogenesis in lambs as a model for humans, as well as some of the ethico-legal consequences of the development of complete or partial ectogenesis. 

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The past, present and future of contraception

10 February 2022

This Forum was organised in collaboration with the Cambridge Femtech Society and explored the origins, methods and future directions of family planning from a historical, sociological and scientific perspective.

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Covid and reproduction

5 November 2021

This Forum explored the many ways that the COVID-19 pandemic has intersected with reproduction - from fertility, pregnancy and reproductive healthcare to infant development and marital relationships.

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Imaging reproduction: a cross-disciplinary conversation

16 March 2021

At this Forum, the panel - a sociologist, a historian, a biologist and a demographer - led a discussion about the role of visual culture in research on reproduction and encouraged the audience to share case studies from their own research.

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Cambridge Reproduction Forum: Michaelmas Term 2020

15 October 2020

This online Forum brought together representatives from each of the major research departments, centres and groups with an interest in reproduction to share their recent research.

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Cambridge Reproduction Forum: Easter Term 2020

5 May 2020

This online Forum presented research from Psychiatry, Sociology and the Centre for Family Research, as well as a presentation by recent Conceptions Fund award holders.

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Cambridge Reproduction Forum: Lent Term 2020

14 February 2020

This Forum was sadly cancelled because of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic.

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Cambridge Reproduction Forum: Michaelmas Term 2019

18 October 2019

This Forum presented flash talks from researchers in Obstetrics & Gynaecology, the MRC Epidemiology Unit, Philosophy, Paediatrics, Engineering and the Babraham Institute, as well as an interdisciplinary discussion on human genome editing.

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Cambridge Reproduction Forum: Easter Term 2019

14 May 2019

This Forum presented research from Archaeology, History, Law, the MRC Epidemiology Unit and Public Health, as well interdisciplinary dialogues about embryo research, and about ancient & future families.

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Cambridge Reproduction Forum: Lent Term 2019

26 February 2019

This was the first networking event of the new Cambridge Reproduction Strategic Research Initiative.

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