The lecture is a part of The Elon University Speaker Series 2022-23, presented by WUNC North Carolina Public Radio, which will explore the theme of "Living Well in a Changing World."
Social justice advocate and sociologist Dorothy Roberts will deliver the Periclean Scholars Guest Lecture to the Elon community on Thursday, Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in Whitley Auditorium. The lecture is a part of The Elon University Speaker Series 2022-23, presented by WUNC North Carolina Public Radio, which will explore the theme of “Living Well in a Changing World.”
Roberts’ lecture is titled, “From Reproductive Choice to Reproductive Justice.” She is the Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor and George A. Weiss University Professor of Law & Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and the founding director of the Penn Program on Race, Science & Society. Roberts has written and lectured extensively on the interplay of race, gender and class inequalities in U.S. institutions and is a leader in transforming thinking on reproductive justice, child welfare and bioethics.
Roberts explains how the mainstream rhetoric of “choice” has privileged women who could choose from reproductive options that are unavailable to poor and low-income women, especially women of color. She argues instead for a “reproductive justice” framework that includes not only a woman’s right not to have a child, but also the right to have children and to raise them with dignity, considering the real-world context of reproductive decision-making.