Dr Julieta Chaparro-Buitrago's scholarly work interrogates how present-day colonial conditions influence the reproductive lives of peasant and indigenous women. This includes examining the impacts of aggressive population control programs and chemical exposure. She argues that these groups' reproductive experiences are not merely individual decisions but are deeply embedded in historical structures dating back to the colonial period. Her research suggests that the distinct worldviews and lived experiences of peasant societies can challenge prevailing assumptions about reproduction, paving the way for decolonial theoretical approaches.
Her forthcoming book, "Decolonizing Reproductive Rights in Latin America: The Cases of Forced Sterilization in Peru," marks the first comprehensive ethnography of Peru's sterilization cases. It offers new insights into reproduction, Latin American studies, and feminist decolonial studies. By examining peasant women’s narratives, urban feminist activism, and state institutions’ bureaucratic responses, she uncovers a discourse hierarchy that prioritizes repro-normative views—where motherhood is seen as a woman's destiny—over other forms of reproductive harm experienced by peasant women. She proposes dissonance as a decolonial feminist methodology to analyze how colonial, racialized, and gendered histories shape legal and experiential incommensurability and the hierarchies of discourse.
Currently, as a Wellcome Trust Early Career Fellow in the Department of Sociology, Dr Chaparro-Buitrago is delving into the intersections of reproduction and extractive industries in Cajamarca, Peru. This project extends the concept of reproduction beyond the human-centric and biological focus, incorporating the reproductive processes of animals and land. Amidst the climate crisis, understanding the connections between reproduction and broader socio-economic and environmental challenges becomes crucial. Her work aims to establish "Reproductive Extractivism" as a framework for exploring these intricate relations and highlighting reproduction's potential as a lens for analyzing extractivism and its effects.
