For a person who is certain they no longer wish to reproduce, a sterilization can bring relief; for someone facing threatening complications from reproduction, it can be a lifesaver. But sterilization has also been mobilized towards coercive agendas throughout the twentieth and early twenty first centuries, used by states and organizations to contain and control communities whose fertility has been deemed threatening, including people of color, indigenous people, prisoners, poor people, people with disabilities, and people with HIV/AIDs. This panel will trace how ideologies of eugenics, neo-Malthusianism, and population control have shaped - and continue to shape - sterilization campaigns around the world, exposing the power dynamics behind these campaigns and questioning our understanding of choice and coercion.

Speakers

• Nicole Bourbonnais, Associate Professor of International History and Politics (moderator)
• Paola Salwan Daher, Associate Director of Global Advocacy, Center for Reproductive Rights
• Ximena Osorio Garate, PhD Candidate, International Relations and Political Science, Geneva Graduate Institute (discussant)
• Arushi Sahay, PhD Candidate, Anthropology and Sociology, Geneva Graduate Institute (discussant)

This event is organised jointly by the Gender Centre and the Feminist Collective at the Geneva Graduate Institute.

Picture by Sapeksh Singh Siwach on Unsplash