Call for Papers: Remembering the Reproductive Body: Narratives of Historical Transmission, Eugenics, and Epigenetics

Co-Editors: Alys Weinbaum (University of Washington) and Julia Wurr (University of Oldenburg)

How are history and memory associated with the reproductive body and how has this relationship changed over time? How does the reproductive body as a source of human beings and human biological commodities figure in the construction of history and memory? These are the overarching questions addressed by the essays collected in this special issue. Seeking to bring together research on different sites of reproduction and memory as well as different approaches to each, this special issue looks at representations of human (and sometimes non-human) reproduction that in various ways engage issues of bodily memory, the reproductive body as a source of historical and cultural memory, and the role that both eugenics and epigenetics have played and continue to play in our understanding of the transmission of ideas, identities, and ideologies. Contributions that explore the reproductive body in the contexts of colonialism, postcolonialism, settler colonialism, and slavery are of particular interest, as are those that treat the reproductive body in the context of overlapping forms of dispossession.

While reproduction can be readily metaphorized, we seek to attend closely to the reproductive body as a bloody, organic, genetic, agential and metaphysical entity. Reproductive bodies are commonly regarded as transmitters of life, genetic information, racial and national identity, and spirituality. It is in this context that we add the questions: How is the reproductive body connected to the transmission of history and cultural memory? How is the reproductive body a site of counter-memory? What roles does it play in the transmission of historical trauma including (but not restricted to) the Holocaust, Atlantic slavery, Indigenous genocide, and European colonization?

While issues such as the relationship between mind and memory, or the role of embodiment in familial, inter- and transgenerational memory are fundamental in the field of memory studies and in the study of historical trauma and genocide, the question of how the reproductive body figures in the transmission of history and cultural memory has not yet been explicitly explored. This is also a question that has, at least to date, been all too tangential in studies of reproduction in many social sciences and humanities disciplines. In social reproduction theory (SRT) there has been some focus on “mothers” as transmitters of culture and ideology and on mothering as a form of labor. However, even in SRT the emphasis has typically been on the “maternal” role played (usually but not exclusively by those who are gendered as female) in the socialization of subjects for life in capitalism. This is an important issue for sure, but it is not the same as that of the transmission of history and cultural memory across time.

With this special issue, they seek contributions that build on and depart from insights emergent from memory studies, reproductive studies, social reproduction theory, history, cultural studies, literary studies, and science and technology studies. Contributions focused on representations of reproduction in all media, genres, and forms are welcome.

Possible topics include:

Keywords: reproductive body; reproductive studies; cultural memory; slavery; post/colonialism; settler colonialism; social reproduction theory; historical transmission; eugenics; epigenetics.

Production schedule:

*Abstracts of 250–500 words due Feb. 1st, 2025
*Articles for review by special issue editors due July 1st, 2025
*Revised articles due April 1st, 2026

Length of articles: 5,000–8,500 words

All materials should be sent to both their emails: alysw@uw.edu and julia.wurr@uni-oldenburg.de