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Intimacy in Cold Neoliberal Times: The State, Biopower, and Global Reproductive Health: An Autoethnographic Journey

Sun, May 28, 8:00 to 9:15, Hilton San Diego Bayfront, Floor: 3, Aqua Salon D

Abstract

As a South Asian, a mother, and an academic studying biopoliticized dictats by the state to curb women’s autonomy in matters of reproduction, the judgement by the Indiana courts in 2015-2016 took me by surprise, and yet, this juridical instance of Purvi Patel’s conviction cannot be examined in isolation. While this is the first time in the United States that abortion laws have sought to punish and prosecute the woman/mother herself, this case in question becomes the touchstone from which to scrutinize historical events and circumstances where biopower has been exerted by the state with impunity. In this paper I argue to connect and examine disparate historical moments of state excesses and other seemingly national or local events (eugenics and population control) to carve a compelling narrative of reproductive gains and losses in a transnational context.

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