Lauren Danielowski - University of Connecticut
Image
When
Noon – 1:15 p.m., Nov. 14, 2025
Where
Surrogacy, Sexual Citizenship, and the Politics of Reproduction
Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) have dramatically changed pathways to family formation and have contributed to shifting norms and ideas regarding reproduction, raising new questions about where and how access to infertility resources fit into broader claims to reproductive rights and justice. Arguably one of the most controversial forms of assisted reproduction, surrogacy simultaneously reproduces and challenges the presumed relationship between biology and family. Further, the case of surrogacy illustrates how hegemonic femininity structures perceptions and meaning making around pregnancy and fertility. Through insights from an ongoing qualitative study of commercial surrogacy in the US, this presentation will discuss how studying reproductive rights within surrogacy clarifies the interdependence of numerous reproductive rights issues and illustrates how intimate labor shapes the relationship between gender, identity, technology, and reproduction.
Lauren Danielowski (she/hers) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Connecticut. Drawing on qualitative methods, her research focuses on structural inequities in reproductive rights, with an intersectional focus on how race, class, and gender shape experiences and discourses surrounding reproduction. Using policy analysis and qualitative interview data, her ongoing dissertation work focuses on how people access their reproductive rights within commercial surrogacy in the United States, with a specific focus on the relationship between economic rights, labor rights, and reproductive rights.