Sociology of Reproduction

3 credits

This course examines reproduction as both a biological and a social process through which power and inequality are produced, regulated, and contested. Moving beyond understandings of reproduction as just pregnancy or childbirth within individual bodies, the course analyzes how reproductive practices and policies are shaped by race, gender, sexuality, class, and nation. Topics include the historical rise of obstetrics and demography, colonial and Cold War population control, the maintenance of racial hierarchies, and contemporary fertility governance in East Asia and beyond. Through case studies of pregnancy, birth, abortion, contraception, sterilization, surrogacy, and childcare, students explore how reproductive experiences are embedded in broader political and economic systems. By linking individual bodies to social institutions and local practices to global structures, the course considers reproduction as a key site of governance and stratification, and examines the possibilities and limits of reproductive justice as a framework for social change.