“Roe v. Wade to La marea verde in Speculative Fiction” (NWSA, Nov 14-17, 2024, Detroit MI)
We invite abstracts for a proposed panel session for the upcoming National Women’s Studies Annual Conference, taking place in Detroit, MI, November 14-17, 2024. Following the theme, “The Journey Not Only the Arrival, Critical Connections Not Only Critical Mass: (Re)Thinking Feminist Movements,” we solicit submissions that consider the critical connections between reproductive justice movements in the Americas, with a specific focus on how these movements are represented in the ever-fruitful field of speculative fiction.
Roe v. Wade to La marea verde: Reproductive Legislation and Activism in Speculative Fiction
In 2020, 2021 and 2022, Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia, respectively, legalized or decriminalized abortion, upholding female reproductive autonomy. The successes la marea verde has won throughout Latin America stand in contrast with the recent reproductive restrictions in the US, where the collapse of Roe v. Wade in 2022 has begun its own disastrous tidal wave of misinformation, border policing, and confusion around medical exceptions in states with near-total bans. With these diverging pathways in mind, how can we connect disparate cultural texts and reproductive rights movements to consider a broader international framework of solidarity? This panel takes Ruth Levitas’s premise of utopia as a process–and not a destination–to explore how speculative fiction from the Americas illuminates feminist movements that transcend regional, national and political discourse. Ultimately, this panel asks how speculative narratives can intervene in, comment on, and even guide the pursuit of equitable reproductive rights and justice. Given the timeliness of this topic, we are specifically interested in work concerning 21st century texts and movements, or 20th century texts that provide historical framing for contemporary movements.
Themes might include, but are not limited to, the following:
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How writers, creatives, and activists intervene in conversations around reproductive restrictions
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Inter-American dialogue
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Reproduction and gender
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Trans activism and reproductive justice
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Queer/Cuir reproduction in speculative fiction
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Representations of reproductive legislation in speculative fiction
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Reproductive activism in visual culture
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The connection between dystopia and utopia
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The ongoing nature of reproductive activism
DEADLINE EXTENDED: Please submit your abstract (250 words) and bio (100 words) to Stephanie Marie Lopez (sml363@cornell.edu) and Sarah Nolan-Brueck (senolan@usc.edu) no later than March 27, 2024.
Please email senolan@usc.edu and sml363@cornell.edu with inquiries or suggestions.