The climate crisis disproportionately affects those living in the global South, with potentially devastating impacts on maternal and infant health, access to safe birthing and abortion conditions and reproductive autonomy. Meanwhile, the discourse around the environmental impacts of reproduction has been tainted by racist myths about overpopulation and fertility and a history of forced sterilisation of indigenous and ethnic minority groups.
Featuring academic panel members across the fields of biological sciences, sociology, gender studies and history, these seminars discuss how climate change and reproductive justice intersect. We will address topics such as the overpopulation myth, environmental racism, and social inequalities utilising reproductive justice as our framework and highlight the centrality of reproduction as a form of political intervention.
Registration Open
29 January 2024, 4-6pm
Tackling the overpopulation myth and climate change. Hosted by Dr R Sánchez-Rivera
Speakers:
Lisa Tilley, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies, Department of Development Studies - SOAS University of London
(SOAS)
SJ Beard, Senior Research Associate - Centre for the Study of Existential Risk
Romola Davenport, Senior Research Associate - Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure
12 February 2024, 4-6pm
An intersectional and transnational approach to climate change. Hosted by Dr R Sánchez-Rivera
Speakers:
Reetika Revathy Subramanian, PhD Candidate and Gates Cambridge Scholar - University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies and Founder, Climate Brides
Amanda Sferruzzi-Perri, University Professor in Fetal and Placental Physiology - Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience
Evelyn Brealey (Director, Cambridge Global Health Partnerships and By Fellow, Hughes Hall)
26 February 2024, 6-7.30pm
Why highlight the centrality of reproduction when studying climate change? Hosted by Dr R Sánchez-Rivera
Speakers include:
Heather McMullen, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Public Health & Policy - Queen Mary University of London
Rebecca Davis, Climate Change Medical Education Fellow and GP - Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust/Cambridge University Clinical School
Nazneen Khan, Center of South Asian Studies, Visiting Research Fellow
We are grateful to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences Research Framework Fund for their financial support of this series.
