Beyond Objectivity: Reflexivity and Positionality In Reproductive Politics

Researchers studying abortion rights, anti-abortion movements, and related forms of political contestation increasingly work in highly polarized environments marked by legal uncertainty, moral conflict, political surveillance, and struggles over academic expertise and legitimacy. In such contexts, positionality is not a peripheral methodological concern but a central dimension of the research process.

We welcome contributions that interrogate the politics of knowledge production itself. This includes reflection on the categories and concepts through which reproductive politics is studied and on contested terms such as ‘pro-life’, ‘anti-abortion’, ‘anti-choice’, and ‘anti-gender’. How do our conceptual, terminological, and methodological choices shape the realities we seek to analyse and influence whose experiences, claims, and forms of expertise become visible and legitimate? What does objectivity mean in research on abortion politics? How can scholars navigate tensions between academic rigour, political commitment, and solidarity with movements for reproductive justice?

By foregrounding the situated nature of knowledge production (Haraway 1988), this panel seeks to advance methodological, theoretical, and ethical conversations about researching reproductive politics in turbulent times and to create a space for collective reflection on the responsibilities and vulnerabilities of abortion scholarship.