Emerging Biopolitics of Kinship, Gender and Reproduction: TRIALOGUES from the South\u00a0<\/strong> is an interdisciplinary research project on emerging regulations of kinship, gender and reproduction. It focuses on path-breaking processes of legal innovation and concomitant political backlashes taking place in Brazil, Spain and Portugal in order to offer a singular comparative approach and to provide empirically informed theoretical insights that are relevant for ongoing debates in the intersections among gender and queer studies.<\/span><\/p>\n Rooted in the field-defining works of moral and political philosophers, recent feminist scholarship and queer theorists have shown the need for interdisciplinary approaches to biopolitical studies. This is specially the case when addressing rapidly evolving fields of biopolitical inquiry, such as emerging forms of kinship relationships, the way medico-legal regimes impact the life projects of transgender people and contemporary bioeconomies of the reproductive field. Drawing in this dense intersection between social sciences and the humanities, the proposed research focuses in three countries pertaining to the European and the global south whose recent history is marked by the transition to democratic regimes in which profound transformations of the biopolitics of kinship, gender and reproduction took place over a rather brief period of time. In this sense, the proposed research constitutes an original response to influent criticisms coming from sexuality studies urging a de-centering of the academic focus away from the global north in order to retain the very political impulse of the studies on sexual and reproductive \u00a0citizenship. More specifically, the project comprises one main strand to be conducted in Brazil \u2013the country of primary focus\u2013 and 2 complementary strands in Spain and Portugal, where research will be enabled through secondments.<\/span><\/p>\n All three strands are aimed at producing empirically informed discussions of emerging biopolitics with an emphasis in the state logics (e.g. political institutions, social policies, legislative and judicial provisions) involved in the overlapping fields of kinship, gender and reproduction as they unfold through emerging regulations of non-monogamous relationships, gender identity and third-party assisted reproduction. Overall, the project entails conducting theoretical research and fieldwork aimed at gathering qualitative data in the form of biographical and expert interviews, legal texts, activist and political discourses in any media. This will be the basis for addressing a set of integrative goals conceived to extract lessons on transversal issues, such as the ongoing backlash against \u201cgender ideology\u201d, and to identify sociopolitical intersections among the three strands by recourse to an original biopolitical reading of the notion of public order [see Integrative considerations]. The resulting distribution of topics and locations has been conceived for maximizing the impact of the proposed transcontinental trialogue along the intersections of the biopolitics of kinship, gender and reproduction through the interdisciplinary lens of gender and queer studies.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”full_width_background” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” bg_color=”#161616″ scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none” css_animation=”” el_class=”left-contact” css=”.vc_custom_1660745732435{padding-top: 100px !important;padding-bottom: 100px !important;}” el_id=”” max_width=”” gradient_type=”default” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_backdrop_filter=”none” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text el_class=”left-contact” css=”.vc_custom_1675602248514{padding-top: 100px !important;padding-bottom: 100px !important;}”]\n <\/p>\n The recognition of some of those forms of human interdependence that we refer to as kinship<\/em> at the expense of others is one of the means by which the state organizes the sexual field. In order to explore the biopolitical contours of this link, TRIALOGUES pays special attention to state recognition of non-monogamous relationships on the understanding that non-monogamies occupy a strategic position in relation to a variety of academic and political debates regarding the effects of the privilege-driven logic of marriage-like institutions over a variety of relational practices, emerging kinship structures resulting from third-party-assisted reproductive techniques; the lasting influence of LGBTQ non-monogamous intimacies on family law; and the impact of institutionalized forms of sexuality and kinship on the regulation of intimacy in a broad sense.<\/span><\/p>\n In recent years, Brazil has been a frequent source of news on matters concerning legal recognition of non-monogamous relationships, including binding contracts for polyamorous relationships and emerging jurisprudence on multi-parental family structures. These path-breaking processes of legal innovation reached its peak with the ruling by the National Justice Council (CNJ) banning the recognition of polyamorous relationships at the state level. Shortly after, the global-right\u2019s \u201canti-gender\u201d rhetoric and the defense of traditional, heterosexual and monogamous family values culminated its process of institutionalization with the victory of the far-right party in the presidential elections, during whose mandate further judicial restrictions were adopted for the recognition of non-monogamous forms of kinship. When taken together, Brazil offers a complex and agonistic image of the biopolitics of kinship with no parallel in other national contexts.<\/span><\/p>\n This strand entails gathering expert interviews held during the outgoing phase hosted by the Federal University of Bahia. Biographical interviews will be held with ten participants involved in non-monogamous relationships. Interviews will be held following the Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM). Special attention will be given to the participation of women, LGBTQ individuals, black and indigenous people in order to allow for an intersectional discussion of the results. Additionally, from five to ten semi-structured interviews<\/strong> will be held with experts and activists on non-monogamies.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”full_width_background” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” bg_color=”#ffffff” bg_image=”5966″ bg_position=”left top” background_image_loading=”default” bg_repeat=”no-repeat” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” color_overlay=”#ffffff” color_overlay_2=”#ffffff” overlay_strength=”0.95″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none” css_animation=”” el_class=”left-contact” css=”.vc_custom_1660745732435{padding-top: 100px !important;padding-bottom: 100px !important;}” el_id=”” max_width=”” gradient_type=”default” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_backdrop_filter=”none” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text el_class=”left-contact” css=”.vc_custom_1675941581324{padding-top: 100px !important;padding-bottom: 100px !important;}”]\n <\/p>\n Gender is a central category of analysis of embodied processes of subject formation. The latest edition of the DSM-5 and, more recently, the ICD-11 of the World Health Organization delineate a non-pathologizing model of transgender and non-binary gender identities. This depathologizing trend is contributing to activist struggles in many countries, leading to a growing number of legislative actions based on gender self-determination, that is, ones without recourse to medical or psychiatric diagnoses (e.g Argentina in 2012, Malta in 2015, Norway in 2016 and Portugal in 2018, Spain in 2023). Nonetheless, self-determination of gender is still the exception rather than the rule in the European Union, and state regulations of gender identity still constitute a common source of institutional forms of administrative violence, partly due to the fact that the information pertaining to the civil status, including legal gender marks, is said to pertain to the public order of the nation-state.<\/span><\/p>\n Legal recognition of gender variance in children is an even more contested field. Nonetheless, many countries are implementing procedures that allow for partial or total recognition of children\u2019s chosen names and gender identities. This is the case in Spain, where a number of emerging regional laws (e.g. Gender Identity Law of Andalusia, Gender Expression and Identity Law of Madrid) address the demands of gender non-conforming children in a similar way to other European countries including Germany, the Netherlands, and Ireland. At the same time, Spanish courts have started to allow for minor\u2019s legal name changes at increasingly early ages until, in July 2019, the Constitutional Court recognized the right for legal gender recognition for transgender minors regardless of their age. At the same time, emerging far-right collectives and political parties have turned these demands into a cultural battlefield, with a number of interventions in public spaces addressing minor\u2019s gender identities and raising moral panics around education programs on gender diversity as a central part of their campaigns.<\/span><\/p>\n The plurality of political actors involved in public and academic debates renders the regulations affecting gender non-conforming children into a key context when exploring the emerging biopolitics of gender. Fieldwork corresponding to this strand, and related tasks, will be conducted during a three-month secondment in the Faculty of Education at Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). It will comprise from five to ten semi-structured interviews with experts, including activists and legal experts. Special attention will be given to gender neutral, gender fluid and other forms of non-binary gender diversity.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”full_width_background” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” bg_image=”6012″ bg_position=”left top” background_image_loading=”default” bg_repeat=”no-repeat” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none” css_animation=”” el_class=”left-contact” css=”.vc_custom_1660745732435{padding-top: 100px !important;padding-bottom: 100px !important;}” el_id=”” max_width=”” gradient_type=”default” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_backdrop_filter=”none” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text el_class=”left-contact” css=”.vc_custom_1675602272630{padding-top: 100px !important;padding-bottom: 100px !important;}”]\n <\/p>\n State regulations of the reproductive field have a temporality of their own, one which creates a solid infrastructure of gender and sexual normativity. The case of gestational surrogacy, in particular, raises issues on a variety of bioethical aspects, fueling public and academic debates in many countries of the European Union, and becoming a source of multiple conflicts of International Private Law resulting from transnational surrogacies. Despite the polarization of these debates, discussions on reproductive citizenship and feminist bioethics regarding gestational surrogacy are of great benefit when examining the impact of class, sexual, gender and racial differences on the biopolitics of reproduction in a transnational frame.<\/span><\/p>\n In the midst of the international debate, and following a rapid expansion of reproductive rights which included granting access to reproductive technologies to lesbians and single women, Portugal endorsed an altruistic regulation of surrogacy in August 2016. In June 2018, however, a public order based on ruling by the Constitutional Court banned anonymous gamete donations and the surrogacy law, leading to a legal backlash in reproductive rights affecting ongoing surrogacy arrangements along with lesbian couples and single women reproductive projects. Nonetheless, and after a new parliamentary debate, the law on gestational surrogacy was re-approved with a few variations in July, 2019. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The arguments held in public debates, the nuances of the extension of reproductive rights for different groups of people in relation with diverse reproductive technologies and the upcoming process of implementation of the new surrogacy law conceal a multi-layered and compelling image of the emerging biopolitics of reproduction. By focusing on the Portuguese case, TRIALOGUES follows the path of legal innovation in Europe in order to provide critical tools of analysis of emerging regulations of the reproductive field. Fieldwork corresponding to this strand will be conducted during a three-month secondment at ISCTE-IUL in Lisbon, where the researcher will hold from five to ten semi-structured interviews with politicians, activists and experts in the field, chosen for their technical knowledge or their direct implication in the implementation of the law.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”full_width_background” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” bg_image=”6727″ bg_position=”left top” background_image_loading=”default” bg_repeat=”no-repeat” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” color_overlay=”#020202″ color_overlay_2=”#020202″ overlay_strength=”0.95″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none” css_animation=”” el_class=”left-contact” css=”.vc_custom_1660745732435{padding-top: 100px !important;padding-bottom: 100px !important;}” el_id=”” max_width=”” gradient_type=”default” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_backdrop_filter=”none” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text el_class=”left-contact” css=”.vc_custom_1675941595360{padding-top: 100px !important;padding-bottom: 100px !important;}”]\n Views: 1046<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [vc_row type=”full_width_background” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” bg_color=”#ffffff” bg_image=”6700″ bg_position=”left top” background_image_loading=”default” bg_repeat=”no-repeat” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-205","page","type-page","status-publish"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["pt","es","en"],"languages":{"pt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trialogues.ces.uc.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trialogues.ces.uc.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trialogues.ces.uc.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trialogues.ces.uc.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trialogues.ces.uc.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":134,"href":"https:\/\/trialogues.ces.uc.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6931,"href":"https:\/\/trialogues.ces.uc.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/205\/revisions\/6931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trialogues.ces.uc.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Strand 1 \u2013 Emerging Biopolitics of Kinship<\/h2>\n
Strand 2 – Emerging Biopolitics of Gender<\/h2>\n
Strand 3 \u2013 Emerging Biopolitics of Reproduction<\/span><\/h2>\n
References<\/span><\/h2>\n
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