Research Overview | ReproSoc

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Changing (In)Fertilities

Changing (In)Fertilities

Changing (In)Fertilities is a major new collaborative interdisciplinary research project funded by the Wellcome Trust and based in the Reproductive Sociology Research Group (ReproSoc) at the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with Prof. Marcia C. Inhorn of Yale University. Changing (In)Fertilities is designed to be...

IVF Histories and Cultures Project

IVF Histories and Cultures Project

This collaborative research initiative began in 2005 as an investigation into the unique culture of mammalian developmental biology in the UK in the post war period, exploring its unusual focus on mammals, and asking why it was such a generative field of study – yielding many of the most important biomedical and...

Life in Translation

Life in Translation

Life in Translation is a collaborative project led by Professor Sarah Franklin , Dr Noémie Merleau-Ponty and Karen Jent . The project explores from social scientific and ethnographic perspectives a contemporary emphasis in the biosciences on biomedical translation, and examines the varied interdisciplinary techniques and...

Fertilisation Through a Looking Glass IVF's recent historical present remains largely unanalysed. Professor Franklin is characterising the intersection of biological reproduction, technological agency, ethical frameworks, scientific knowledge and public culture, through which IVF has become an accepted and regular fact of life... Read more	china_repro_tech.png China ReproTech In recent years the development and use of assisted reproductive technologies have exploded in China. Since China's first IVF baby was born in 1988, over 350 treatment centres have opened, potentially offering services to the over 90 million estimated infertile individuals in the country today. In addition to IVF, prenatal... Read more	dish_life_250.png Dish Life (film & game) In 2016, our interdisciplinary collaboration between the Cambridge Department of Sociology and Stem Cell Institute produced Dish Life, a documentary short film which explores stem cell researchers’ affective relationship with their in vitro cells. Since then, the film has been in the official selection and won awards at... Read more
untitled_design.png Life in Glass Life in Glass is a series of cultural experiments that explore the relation between reproductive technologies and the social worlds we live in. Through art, film and creative dialogue, we consider how reproductive technologies come to play an ever larger role in the process of imagining when, how, if, and what we reproduce in our lifetimes. Read more	philomathia.png (In)Fertility, Education and Reproductive Health Over the past decades most industrialized countries have undergone profound changes in family and fertility patterns. Marriage and first birth are consistently delayed to later ages, cohabitation and other alternative living arrangements to marriage are becoming increasingly common and there is a growing disconnection between marriage and procreation. In most of Europe... Read more	mail_study_logo_robert_2021.png Men’s Attitudes to Intimate Life Men's Attitudes to Intimate Life (MAIL) is a multi-site interview study of attitudes towards parenthood and child-free living among HIV-positive gay and bisexual men in London. Led by ReproSoc’s Research Associate Robert Pralat, the project seeks to find out how younger non-heterosexual men living with HIV approach their personal life and what they think about the future. Read more
nuclear_families_image.png Nuclear Families Dr Mwenza Blell works on the Nuclear Families: Understanding the experiences of the test veterans community project, which is being delivered by the University of Southampton. The project aims to provide a contemporary approach to understand the lives of the families of British nuclear test veterans, exploring this group... Read more	surrogarts_image_reprosoc.png SurrogARTS This research project focuses on surrogacy as an assisted reproduction technique (hence the short title ‘SurrogARTs’). It takes the case of transnational surrogacy carried out by European gay men in the US, as compared to American gay fathers. It looks at the motivations, relationships and experiences of European and American gay men... Read more	reproducing_the_environment_image.png Reproducing the Environment Reproducing the Environment is a collaborative project led by Katie Dow and Janelle Lamoreaux (University of Arizona). The project brings together scholars working on the diverse and important intersections between reproduction and the environment in many different parts of the world and in different species... Read more