Book Launch: Embodying Irish Abortion Reform by Aideen O’Shaughnessy

Join us for an exciting book launch event featuring Dr. Aideen O'Shaughnessy as she discusses her latest work on abortion activism in Ireland.

Sign up here.

Introduction:

• Professor Sarah Franklin (University of Cambridge)

Respondents:

• Dr. Rishita Nandagiri (KCL)

• Dr. Pam Lowe (Aston University Birmingham)

• Professor Ruth Fletcher(QMUL)

Chair:

• Dr. Lucy van de Wiel (KCL)

This in-person event will take place in the beautiful River Room of King's Strand Campus, London WC2R 2LS, UK.

Embodying Irish Abortion Reform

Offering a unique perspective, this book explores the lived, embodied and affective experiences of reproductive rights activists living under, and mobilizing against, Ireland’s constitutional abortion ban.

Through qualitative research and in-depth interviews with activists, the author exposes the subtle influence of the 8th Amendment on Irish women and their (reproductive) bodies, whether or not they have ever attempted to access a clandestine abortion.

It explains how the everyday embodied practices, bodily labours and affective experiences of women and gestating people were shaped by the 8th amendment and through the need to ‘prepare’ for crisis pregnancies. In addition, it reveals the integral role of women’s bodies and emotions in changing the political and social landscape in Ireland, through the historical transformation of the country’s abortion laws.

Bio

Dr. Aideen O'Shaughnessy is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Lincoln. She has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge, an MA in Gender Studies Research from Utrecht University and a BA in Sociology and French at Trinity College Dublin. Her research focuses on gender, health, and social movements and she is particularly interested in the study of reproductive health, rights, and justice. She has published widely in journals including Body and Society, the European Journal of Women's Studies, and the BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health. Her new book is entitled Embodying Irish Abortion Reform: Bodies, Emotions, and Feminist Activism (2024) from Bristol University Press.

What if adult diabetes risk was a function of nutrition in-utero? What would it mean for future prosperity if countries acted on the evidence that height at age two is predictive of future human capital?

In the last decade, the understanding that human health and development are profoundly shaped by early life environmental conditions has animated a global health focus on nutrition in the first 1000 days of life.

The Politics of Potential examines how new scientific understandings of the developmental origins of health and disease constitute new forms of intergenerational responsibility that are racialized and gendered, and how these overlook the everyday potentialities that shape perceptions of the future in South Africa.

This book event will feature a short presentation by the author Dr Michelle Pentecost, followed by responses from Professor Sarah Hodges and Dr Rishita Nandagiri, and a discussion chaired by Dr Lucy van de Wiel, followed by lunch. Guests will also be able to purchase a signed copy of the book during the event.

This event is hosted by the Reproduction Research Cluster in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine.

More information here.

This seminar is an Inclusive Methodology workshop hosted by Dr Julia Bailey at the UCL Centre for Excellence in Qualitative Health Research and Teaching.

In this workshop, I will explore considerations for research on ‘sensitive’ topics (such as abortion), and why our social position ('who we are') matters in research.

• What’s ‘sensitive’ about it, anyway? Thinking carefully about conducting qualitative research with ‘sensitive’ topics or populations

In the first part of the workshop we will discuss what we mean by ‘sensitive’ research or ‘vulnerable’ participants. We will reflect on its implications for conducting ethical research, as well as considering what this means for how we design our study, and the methods and modalities we rely on.  

• Positionality, Power, and Reflexivity in Research

In the second part of the workshop we will engage with questions of power and positionality. Engaging with reflexivity, we consider its role in producing high-quality, ethical, rigorous, and transparent qualitative research.  

Tickets are available here.

Register here. I’ll be joining Dr Ruth Fletcher, Prof Sophie Harman, and Dr Erica Miller to discuss Dr Sydney Calkin’s book ‘Abortion pills go global: reproduction freedom across borders’.

Join us for a webinar on “Bioethics and Global Health: In Search of Common Ground”.

The Black and Brown in Bioethics network aims to expand opportunities for community engagement for people of colour both within the UK and around the world. This webinar, organised by Matimba, will focus specifically on the divide – but also the similarities – between the ‘Global North’ and ‘Global South’, and aim to identify areas of learning and convergence that should become the focus of future collaboration and development. We are very excited that we will be joined by Caesar Atuire (University of Ghana and University of Oxford), Sharon Kaur (University of Malaya), and Isabella Aboderin (Perivoli Africa Research Centre). Rishita Nandagiri (King’s College London) will be chairing the discussion.

The timings for the webinar (all given as BST/UTC+1) are:

• Introduction (11:00-11:10) – Rishita Nandagiri (Chair), on a time for new North-South relationships in global health and bioethics

• Talk 1 (11:10-11:30) – Caesar Atuire, on enriching current bioethical discourse through African philosophy

• Talk 2 (11:30-11:50) – Sharon Kaur, on developing a South East Asian Bioethics Network

• Break (11:50-12:00)

• Talk 3 (12:00-12:20) – Isabella Aboderin, on the imperative of transformative global North-Africa research collaborations

• Panel discussion (12:20-12:50) – Chair and speakers respond to questions submitted by attendees, and address the question “what should a just future entail?”

• Close (12:50-13:00) –  Matimba Swana, on our upcoming events

If you would like to attend, please register at the link below. This webinar is open to anyone with an interest in these issues. Joining instructions (for Zoom) will be e-mailed to attendees on Monday 3 September 2023.