Gestation: Bodies, Technologies, Ecologies, Justice

The IAS Annual Theme for 2023-24, Gestation: Bodies, Technologies, Ecologies, Justice is led by Dr Pandora Syperek (LUL), Dr Eleanor Morgan (SDCA), Dr Emma Pullen (SSEHS), Dr Ana Cristina Suzina (LUL).

Gestation is a complex negotiation of culture, biology and politics constituted through entanglements of human and non-human agents and practices that extend beyond the flesh. As reproductive rights and freedoms currently face attacks internationally and gestational inequalities continue to be exposed, there has been much innovative rethinking around gender, kinship, reproduction and care. Feminist and queer theorists propose alternative, sometimes utopian societal arrangements to overturn hierarchies of patriarchal colonialism, rethinking gestation beyond narrow hetero- and cisnormative understandings.

This urgent theme is not limited to the human, but encompasses radically other lifeforms and models of development, (reproductive) technologies and AI. Deployed as a weapon in eugenics and genocide, gestation is at the heart of ecological debates around population and also has important implications for Indigenous philosophies regarding the ethics of our relationships with the Earth. Although associated with growth, to gestate is to carry and in all its forms is a relational act.

In a creative and collaborative process, this theme unfolds as a series of cross-disciplinary conversations to listen to diverse perspectives on gestations and think together about the way life is generated and reproduced materially and symbolically. 

Upcoming Events

There is an African proverb that says that “it takes a village to raise a child”. This roundtable will propose a reflection about gestation from the perspective of carrying and caring, accentuating the idea of a lasting process that is not limited or circumscribed to pregnancy and birth, and that encompasses a collective engagement with the generation and protection of life. From Indigenous and grassroots perspectives to socio-economic, political and emotional aspects, the speakers will reflect upon the reciprocal influence between human communities and their context in the development of decent and dignified living conditions, something that will touch the design of public policies coherent with these purposes. 

Chair: 
Dr Ana Cristina Suzina (ICMI, LUL)  

Featuring IAS Visiting Fellows: 
Dr Lindsay Jane Barnes (Jan Chetna Manch Bokaro) 
Dr Luiza Prado (Weibel Fellow — Vienna University of Applied Arts) 
Dr Åsa Virdi Kroik (Boska publishing house)

Plus guest speaker: 
Professor Barry Bogin (SSEHS, LU) 

To book a place for this event, please click here

There will be additional Gestation Theme activity beyond this throughout the week, please see each event page for more details and to book a place - 

As reproductive rights and freedoms currently face attacks internationally and gestational inequalities continue to be exposed, there has been much innovative rethinking around gender, kinship, reproduction, motherhood and care. Gestation has been weaponised in eugenics and genocide, as in eco-fascist rhetoric surrounding population. Feminist and queer theorists propose alternative, sometimes utopian societal arrangements to overturn hierarchies of patriarchal colonialism, rethinking gestation beyond narrow hetero- and cisnormative understandings. Meanwhile, international cultural, political and legal frameworks around gestation vary greatly, indicating myriad and complex needs.  

This roundtable brings together diverse scholars working across medicine, political philosophy, communications and behavioural science to consider existing inequities and their intersections, and how expanded concepts of gestation may lead to greater justice. 

Chair: 
Dr Pandora Syperek (IDI, LUL)  

Featuring IAS Visiting Fellows: 
Ms Nompumelelo Gumede (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) 
Dr Sophie Lewis (Independent, Philadelphia, USA) 

Plus guest speakers: 
Dr Burçe Çelik (IMCI, LUL) 
Dr Pragya Agarwal (SSH, LU - Visiting Professor of Social Inequities and Injustice)  

To book a place for this event, please click here

There will be additional Gestation Theme activity beyond this throughout the week, please see each event page for more details and to book a place - 

Previous Events

Gestation is an incontrovertibly universal yet deeply varied experience, with complex concerns arising recently through the rollback of women’s rights, gestational inequalities and neo-natal trajectories, imbrication in neo-fascist discourse and novel methods for reproduction, kinship and care. It is a complex negotiation of culture, technology, biology and politics constituted relationally through entanglements of human and non-human agents and practices that extend beyond the flesh. Gestation forms an inherently interdisciplinary field, spanning sport, health and medicine, social sciences, politics and law, history, geography, design, arts and culture, with reverberations in (micro)biology and genetics, robotics and AI, post- and transhumanism, disability studies, critical race and queer and trans theory.

This roundtable focuses on bodies and technologies as sites of gestational realities, bringing together an exceptional group of international scholars to share their wide-ranging disciplinary perspectives on the Theme.

Bodies and Technologies is co-chaired by Dr Eleanor Morgan, School of Design and Creative Arts & Dr Emma Pullen, School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough university

Featuring IAS Visiting Fellows - 
Dr Isabela de Oliveira Dornelas, Postdoctoral Fellow in Department III, Artefacts, Action, Knowledge, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin
Professor Mary E. Fissell, Professor of the History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
Professor Hideyasu Shimadzu, Professor of Data Science, Kitasato University, Kanagawa
Professor Holly Thorpe, Professor of Sport and Gender, University of Waikato, Hamilton

Plus guest speakers from Loughborough University - 
Dr Victoria Browne (Senior Lecturer in Political Philosophy, SSH)
Dr Emily Petherick (Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, SSEHS)

For more details and to book onto this roundtable event, please go to the Gestation: Bodies and Technologies Roundtable event page

There will be additional Gestation Theme activity beyond this throughout the week, please see each event page for more details and to book a place - 

Gestation: Bodies and Technologies - Introductory Remarks
Dr Isabela de Oliveira Dornelas
Dr Victoria Browne
Professor Mary E. Fissell
Professor Holly Thorpe
Dr Emily Petherick
Professor Hideyasu Shimadzu