Reproduction and Reproductive Justice: Past, Present and Future

Module title	Reproduction and Reproductive Justice: Past, Present and Future
Module code	HASM030
Academic year	2025/6
Credits	30
Module staff	Professor Rebecca Flemming (Convenor)

Duration: Term	1	2	3
Duration: Weeks		10

Number students taking module (anticipated)	10

Module description

Reproduction is a key aspect of human biological, demographic, and social life. It is also a prominent policy issue, a site of crucial contests around rights and justice. This module offers opportunities to study all of these questions, separately and together, from a range of different disciplinary perspectives, and with a focus on the past, present and future. Ideas and practices around fertility and generation vary across the globe, the complex interactions between the social, biological, and political dimensions of reproduction have changed over time, and are still changing, with technological advances only one factor, new models of kinship, and powerful political forces.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to enrich and strengthen students’ understanding of reproduction as a complex and multifaceted human phenomenon that has been construed, pursued, organised and regulated quite differently in different places and periods, and which continues to change dramatically in terms of technology, kinship, agency, possibility and coercion. It aims to familiarise students with the various ways that scholars across the humanities and social sciences have approached the study of reproduction and reproductive justice and with the different kinds of evidence and methods used, so enabling them to critically evaluate key arguments and analyses.

As well as orienting students in relation to a wide range of approaches to reproduction, the module also provides students with the opportunity to identify and study particular historical, geographical or demographic case studies or themes in more detail, and so develop a deep, critical understanding of different aspects of this field. It will also invite wider reflection on the relationship between past, present and future in relation to reproduction and reproductive justice, and consider the range of factors implicated in historical change and geographical variability, in different social and political dynamics and trajectories.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

1. Understand and evaluate important themes, methodologies, theories and questions in the study of reproduction and reproductive justice across the humanities and social sciences today.
2. Develop detailed knowledge and understanding of the different kinds of evidence involved in the study of reproduction and reproductive justice across different times and places.
3. Reflect critically on the factors implicated in historical change and geographical variability in relation to reproductive aims, practices and ideologies.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

4. Analyse and synthesise different types of historical, social and demographic evidence.
5. Demonstrate a critical understanding of key concepts and debates in the study of reproduction and reproductive justice.
6. Independently research and develop an original response to key questions about the study of reproduction and reproductive justice.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

7. Demonstrate capacity for independent critical research, study and thought, including developing the ability to construct and defend a sustained argument, both in written form and orally, using primary and secondary materials.
8. Work individually and as part of team in constructive and responsive ways to deliver specific projects.
9. Apply key bibliographical skills to independent study.

Syllabus plan

This will be a team-taught module and the syllabus will vary according to the composition of the module team and student choice. Whilst the content may vary from year to year, the following list offers an indication of the types of topics covered:

Introduction to reproduction and reproductive justice as an interdisciplinary field of study.
Fertility Control in the Ancient Mediterranean.
Struggles for reproductive justice in Latin America.
Infertility in Medieval Europe.
Theories of reproduction in the Medieval Islamic world.
Sex, Sexuality and Family Formation in Modern Britain.
Global approaches to population.
Access to new reproductive technologies.
Fertility and bodies in Early Modern Europe.
Reproduction in modern South Asia.
Archaeology of Reproduction.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
20	280

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	20	Seminars/workshops
Guided Independent Study	140	Reading and preparing for seminars
Guided Independent Study	140	Completing assessment tasks

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay Plan	500 words	1-9	Oral and written.
Group presentation	10 mins	1-9	Oral from tutor and peers.

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
100	0	0

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay	70	4000 words	1-9	Oral and written.
Podcast (group project)	30	5-10 minute individual contribution to the group project	1-9	Oral and written.

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Essay (4000 words)	Essay (4000 words)	1-9	Referral/Deferral period
Podcast (group project)	2000-word written project.	1-9	Referral/Deferral period

Re-assessment notes

Deferral: if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral: if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Gayle Davis and Tracey Loughran (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History: Approaches, Contexts and Perspectives (London, 2017)
Kate Fisher, Birth Control, Sex and Marriage in Britain, 1918-1960 (Oxford, 2006)
Kate Fisher and Sarah Toulalan (eds), The Routledge History of Sex and the Body: 1500 to the Present (London 2016)
Mary Fissell, Abortion: A History (London, 2025)
Sarah Franklin and Marcia C. Inhorn (eds), The New Reproductive Order: Technology, Fertility, and Social Change around the Globe (New York, 2025)
Sarah Hodges and Mohan Rao (eds), Public Health and Private Wealth: Stem Cells, Surrogates, and Other Strategic Bodies (Delhi, 2016).
Nick Hopwood, Rebecca Flemming and Lauren Kassell (eds), Reproduction : Antiquity to the Present Day (Cambridge, 2018)
Mariela Laura Szwarcberg and Mason Wallace Moseley, Mobilizing for Abortion Rights in Latin America (Cambridge, 2023).

Key words search

Reproduction; History; Justice; Gender; Fertility; Health; Rights.

Credit value	30
Module ECTS	15
Module pre-requisites	None
Module co-requisites	None
NQF level (module)	6
Available as distance learning?	No
Origin date	08/04/2025
Last revision date	08/04/2025