September 12, 2024: Inaugural Kahn Distinguished Lecture
Race, Religion, and Reproductive Politics in Mexican History
Elizabeth O’Brien, UCLA
6 PM lecture followed by Q&A and booksigning
The Texana Room, Fondren Library, 6404 Robert S. Hyer Lane, SMU
In this sweeping history of reproductive surgery in Mexico, Elizabeth O'Brien traces the interstices of religion, reproduction, and obstetric racism from the end of the Spanish empire through the post-revolutionary 1930s. Examining medical ideas about operations (including cesarean section, abortion, hysterectomy, and eugenic sterilization), Catholic theology, and notions of modernity and identity, O'Brien argues that present-day claims about fetal personhood are rooted in the use of surgical force against marginalized and racialized women. This history illuminates the theological, patriarchal, and epistemological roots of obstetric violence and racism today.
Elizabeth O’Brien is an assistant professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her book, Surgery and Salvation: The Roots of Reproductive Injustice in Mexico, 1770-1940 (North Carolina, 2023). It received book prizes from the Latin American Studies Association’s Siglo XIX section, the Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies, and the Western Association of Women Historians. Her research has been published in The Lancet, Endeavour, The Washington Post, The Journal of Women’s History, Women’s History Review, and Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, and has been funded by the NEH, the NSF, Fulbright, and ACLS/Mellon.
Co-sponsored with SMU's Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center.
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Questions or to register, email swcenter@smu.edu.