Public Lecture by Prof. Amrita Pande on May 22nd 2023

We are happy to announce that on May 22nd, 2023, at 12:15, Prof. Amrita Pande from the University of Cape Town will deliver a public lecture on the topic "Global Fertility Markets: (Re)Producing Babies, Reproducing Whiteness".

The lecture takes place in Kollegiengebäude 1, room 1098, and is open to all university members. The event will be in person only.

Cross-border reproductive flows involve clients traveling across the world to fulfil their dreams of having a genetically related baby or a baby tailor-made to their expectations. In this presentation, based on a decade-long multi-sited ethnography of such reproductive flows and the global fertility industry, Prof. Pande argues that parental desires about their offspring cannot be discussed merely as intimate or private choices, but are a critical frame for analysing racialisation of reproduction. Prof. Pande uses an intersection of feminist studies of race and reproduction, critical race studies and critical whiteness studies from the south, to argue that, on the one hand, these choices bring attention to the need to understand reproductive desires as cosmopolitan, traveling and affective. On the other hand, these choices mask stark instances of “flexible eugenics” (Taussig, Rapp and Heath 2008)– wherein whiteness is reaffirmed as a universal and worthy choice

Prof. Pande is an academic, writer, and performer. Her research revolves around globalisation and the intimate, with a focus on reproductive labour and new reproductive technologies. Her latest book "Birth controlled: Selective reproduction and neoliberal eugenics in South Africa and India" appeared in 2022 with Manchester University Press. Prof. Pande is also the head of the Global Studies Programme at the University of Cape Town.