Racial and Reproductive Injustice: The Long History of Eugenic Sterilization in California

Alexandra Stern is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, American Culture, and History at the University of Michigan.
This lecture series on the biopolitics of reproduction in the US and globally is hosted by the Black Studies Colloquium, with the co-sponsorship of the department of Feminist Studies, Chicana and Chicano Studies, the History of Science Program, and the New Health, Medicine, and Care Working Group.

Speakers will explore how cultural and political commitments shape and constrain the conditions under which women and people of color control their reproductive lives and experience ownership over their own biology. This lecture series approaches these issues from a historical and ethnographic perspective, exploring the eugenics movement, progressive era public health reform, cultural politics of abortion, and the science of women’s reproductive systems.

hm 4/1/15