*CFP: Reproducing the Environment*

*American Anthropological Association Annual Conference*

*Denver, Colorado*

*Nov 18-22, 2015*



Organizers: Dr. Katie Dow and Dr. Janelle Lamoreaux

Research Group in Reproductive Sociology, University of Cambridge



In what ways is the environment a context for thinking about reproduction,
and reproduction a context for thinking about the environment? Through what
overlapping idioms, analogies, and examples are reproduction and the
environment connected? This panel aims to encourage dialogue between
anthropologists working on the environment and/or reproduction, as well as
to reflect on the ways in which many of the people we research implicitly
or explicitly speak, think and act on this connection. For instance,
concerns about how to manage resources and whether to limit human
intervention into nature take on a new poignancy when assisted reproductive
technologies are employed to preserve endangered animal and plant species
(Friese 2013; Heatherington 2008). Similarly, activists across the world
have made the planetary consequences of industrialization salient by
drawing attention to the potential impact on future generations, from
impaired fertility and cancer caused by toxic exposures, to birth defects
and early onset-puberty caused by endocrine disrupting chemicals (Murphy
2008; Roberts 2007). What can we learn from how people investigate
environmental deterioration through sexual and reproductive health, as well
as how they describe reproductive aspirations for themselves and other
human and non-human beings in relation to environmental concerns?



Thinking about the environment and reproduction not only causes us to think
about life, death and ways of living. It also raises questions about time,
past decisions and the future, like what kind of world we want to leave for
future generations (Dow forthcoming) and whether they will be able to solve
the problems of climate change. As the extensive literature on infertility
and assisted reproduction shows, dilemmas about reproduction are often
described as most urgent when the question is whether one can reproduce at
all (Strathern 1992a; Strathern 1992b).  Many environmentalist campaigners
remain concerned about the effects of continued growth in the human
population on the natural world and other species, so grapple with their
consciences in making decisions about whether and how to have children
themselves. The critical work of queer ecologies, on the other hand,
reminds us that much of the science and activism on the environment is
informed by sex/gender and heteronormative assumptions about reproduction.
(Hayward 2012; Mortimer-Sandilands and Erickson 2010; Raffles 2010). The
panel, then, also seeks to address how ideas about reproduction, sex/gender
and sexuality are themselves reproduced through environmental sciences and
activisms and to what effects.



Please send abstracts of 250 words to [log in to unmask] by April 2. Topics
might include:

- Environmental health, especially as it relates to sexual development or
reproduction

- Reproductive ecology/toxicology; environmental biology/physiology

- Endocrine disrupting chemicals

- Epigenetics

- Maternal risk

- “Sex-specific” cancers

- GMOs and food security

- Endangerment and extinction

- Invasive/native species

- Seed banking



This panel will serve as a preliminary forum for an upcoming conference
with a similar theme to be held at University of Cambridge in fall of 2016.
Potential participants are invited to send us a message and/or abstract
even if they will not be able to attend the 2015 AAA meeting.

-- 
Janelle Lamoreaux
Research Associate
University of Cambridge
Free School Lane
Cambridge, CB2 3RQ
UK

e: [log in to unmask]

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