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Cambridge Reproduction Forum (Easter Term 2025):
The male factor: Fathers’ contributions to reproduction
When: Tuesday 20 May 2025, 3pm for a 3.15pm start, drinks from 6pm
Where: Newnham College, Cambridge
What is a father’s role in reproduction and early parenthood?
In a field that has largely focused on mother-child relationships and the contributions of female organisms more generally, the potential of broadening discussions of reproduction to include the ‘male factor’ is clear. This term’s Forum shines the spotlight on fathers’ reproductive contributions. We will discuss what it means to be a father in societies undergoing change, while reflecting on similarities and differences across species in the male role beyond supplying DNA.
Topics will span the father’s contribution from before fertilisation to after birth, including male contraception, paternal health during the pre-conception period and its impact on fertility and offspring health and the father’s journey through fertility treatment and pregnancy loss. What does it mean to be a father in worlds in which biological, behavioural and legal relationships can be complex? What are the social and financial implications in parental-leave policies and career progression dynamics of fathers playing a larger role in childcare? How do different species organise the division of labour between sexes?
PROGRAMME
15:15 - Welcome and introduction - Nick Hopwood (HPS and Co-Chair of Cambridge Reproduction)
INTERDISCIPLINARY DIALOGUE (1)
What is the father's contribution before birth?
Erica Watson (PDN) and Geraldine Jowett (Gurdon Institute)
INTERDISCIPLINARY DIALOGUE (2)
Fatherhood and fertility
Natalie Smith (Cambridge IVF) and Jonathan Luwagga (Fertility Alliance)
16:30 - TEA BREAK
FLASH TALKS
Chair: Isabel Marchand-Casas (Pathology)
- Matthew Neville (Wellcome Sanger Institute)
- Ashley Moffett (Pathology)
INTERDISCIPLINARY DIALOGUE (3)
What is the father's contribution after birth?
Helen Dolling (Centre for Child, Adolescent and Family Research), Matt Jordan (Law) and Shannon Philip (Sociology)
18:00 - Drinks and networking reception
Registration open
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Past Cambridge Reproduction Fora
Why do people have children?12 March 2025 In this forum we gathered biologists, economists, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, demographers and historians to ask: what are children for? |
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Creating Connections22 October 2024 An afternoon of talks and dialogues, followed by networking reception, showcasing how Cambridge Reproduction creates connections between researchers. |
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Transpositions: a Cambridge Reproduction Forum1 June 2024 This Forum used plant scientist Barbara McClintock’s fundamental idea of chromosome ‘crossing over’ to draw connections between different ways of reproducing life – in plants, in humans, and in art – and to ask questions about how knowledge of genetics and heredity have changed over time. |
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Thicker Than Blood: kinship, its multiplicity and entanglements13 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 Turn18 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 202218 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, regulation4 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 contraception10 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 reproduction5 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 conversation16 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 202015 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 20205 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 202014 February 2020 This Forum was sadly cancelled because of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. |
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Cambridge Reproduction Forum: Michaelmas Term 201918 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 201914 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 201926 February 2019 This was the first networking event of the new Cambridge Reproduction Strategic Research Initiative. |
