CfP: The Coming of Age of the Public Fetus -
               Exploring Pregnant and Fetal Bodies in Visual Culture 
 
An international workshop at Uppsala University, Sweden, 15–17 May 2019 
 
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, feminist scholars started to use the 
concept of “the public fetus” to describe the growing dissemination of fetal 
images in the public. This process was often connected to the publication of 
Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson’s pictures of human fetuses in the 
mid-1960s and the increasing use of the obstetric ultrasound. Many have 
analyzed the consequences of this change and how images of fetal bodies 
have been used in anti-abortion campaigns, especially in the US context. 
However, while these issues are still highly relevant, the historiography 
of “the public fetus” has also been problematized, which calls for further 
research. For example, how were pregnancy and fetuses made publically 
visible in earlier periods and in other cultural contexts? And how can new 
historical perspectives extend our knowledge of this development and of 
today’s visual culture? Given the media expansion of the last decades and 
contemporary political struggles over reproductive rights, we find it 
important and timely to advance scholarly discussion on these matters.  
 
The purpose of this workshop is to bring together scholars from a range of 
disciplines to further explore pregnant and fetal bodies in visual culture. 
Our aim is to expand the geographical and historical scope of inquiry and to 
discuss visualizations of pregnancy across a variety of media and contexts. 
We are interested in current research on this topic in history of medicine, 
gender studies, film and media studies, art history, and other relevant 
fields, and invite scholars working on a wide range of materials to join us in 
an interdisciplinary endeavor.  
 
Keynote lectures 
Professor emeritus Barbara Duden, Leibniz University Hannover, 
Germany, “Visualizing the Unborn in the Gaze of the Scientist. Perspectives 
from a Body Historian” 
 
Professor Dr. Manon S. Parry, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and University 
of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, “Babies in Bottles: Encountering Fetal 
Bodies in Medical Museums” 
 
We especially, but not exclusively, welcome papers and work-in-progress 
presentations on the following topics: 
 
•       Historiographical and theoretical perspectives on “the public fetus” 
•       Discussions of borders and relationships between different media and  
genres, for example comparisons and connections between reproductive 
bodies in science, art, and popular culture 
•       Transnational perspectives, for example analyses of the international 
circulation of images and exhibitions featuring pregnancy 
•       Fetal bodies in medical museums and other public spaces 
•       Studies of censorship practices and negotiations regulating 
visualizations of pregnancy in the public 
•       Images of fetuses in anti-abortion campaigns 
•       The uses of visual media in communicating medical research on 
reproduction  
•       Feminist and other activist visualizations of pregnant bodies 
 
Abstracts for 20 minute papers or work-in-progress presentations, of a 
maximum of 300 words, should be submitted no later than January 31, 
2019, to [log in to unmask] Please provide your full name, 
institutional affiliation, and contact details. The format of the workshop will 
not allow for more than ca.12 papers. We will evaluate the abstracts based 
on the originality of the research and the relevance to the theme of the 
workshop. Applicants will be notified if their papers have been accepted by 
February 11, 2019. The workshop language is English. A publication is 
planned, based on selected papers from the workshop. 
 
The workshop is three days, opening on the evening of May 15 and 
concluding in the late afternoon of May 17, 2019. Registration, lunches, 
workshop dinner and accommodation (two nights at the conference hotel) 
are free of charge for participants presenting papers. It may also be 
possible to obtain limited economic support for travel expenses. Please 
indicate in your application if such support is required for attendance and 
what level of support is needed.   
 
If you would like to attend without a paper or a presentation, the deadline 
for application is also January 31, 2019. Please indicate your reasons for 
wanting to take part in the workshop, and please note that only attendees 
who present a paper are eligible for economic support. The workshop is 
organized by the research program ”Medicine at the Borders of Life: Fetal 
Research and the Emergence of Ethical Controversy in Sweden” which is 
funded by the Swedish Research Council and hosted by the Department of 
History of Science and Ideas at Uppsala University, Sweden 
(http://medicalborders.se/). 
 
Welcome! 
 
Elisabet Björklund, [log in to unmask],  
& Helena Franzén, [log in to unmask]  
Department of History of Science and Ideas, Uppsala University 

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