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Sociology Research

 

Dr R Sánchez-Rivera has a Ph.D. in the Centre for Latin American Studies at the University of Cambridge. They hold a B.A. in Political Science and History from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus and an M.A. in Regional Studies—Latin America and the Caribbean from Columbia University in the City of New York.

 

Research Interests

Eugenics, Racism, Reproductive Justice, Historical Sociology, Sociology of Health and Illness, Critical Race Theory, Disability Studies, Gender, and Queer/Cuír Theory

Research Projects

Current: What Happened to Mexican Eugenics: Racism and the Reproduction of the Nation

Current: The Cultural Politics of Reproduction in Latin America (alongside Dr. Rebecca Ogden, University of Kent)

Teaching

Lecture: Soc11: Histories of Race: The Science Fiction of "Race"
Lecture: Soc11: Histories of Race: The Legacies of Scientific Racism: Racial Projects, Assimilation/Segregation

Currently Supervising: Soc1-Introduction to Sociology, Soc3-Modern Societies II: Global Social Problems and Dynamics of Resistance, Soc4-Concepts and Arguments in Sociology, Soc10-Gender, Soc11-Racism, Race, and Ethnicity, Soc12-Empire, Colonialism, and Imperialism

Supervision Coordination: Soc1-Introduction to Sociology, Soc2-Social Theory, Soc3-Modern Societies II: Global Social Problems and Dynamics of Resistance, and Soc11-Racism, Race, and Ethnicity

Publications

Books

2024  Slippery Eugenics: An Intersectional Approach to the Critical Studies of Science (SAGE Publishing-MS Submitted)

2025  An Exploration of Mexican Eugenics: Racism and the Reproduction of the Nation (University of Iowa Press-Proactive Commissioning, Contract Pending for Locating Reproductive Justice: Global and Regional Perspectives)

 

Special Issues

2023  The Cultural Politics of Reproduction in Latin America, Bulletin of Latin American Research

 

Peer-reviewed Publications

2024  Sánchez-Rivera, R. & Mackenzie, S. Queering Covid. Sociology (Forthcoming)

2024  Sánchez-Rivera, R., “The Beginnings of “la locura” and its Ties to Eugenics in Mexico”, Cold Spring Harbor: Perspectives in Biology (Proactive Commissioning-Submitted)

2024  Sánchez-Rivera, R. “Mexican Eugenics and Disability After the Second Half of the 20th Century”, Legados de la Eugenesia en México y las Americas (Forthcoming)

2023  Sánchez-Rivera, R; Peña, Glorimarie. Internalized Eugenics and Hygienic Codes in Puerto Rican Trap and Reggaetón, Caribbean Studies

2023  From Preventive Eugenics to Slippery Eugenics: Contemporary Sterilizations Targeted to Indigenous Peoples in Mexico, Sociology of Health & Illness (DOI: 10.1111/1467-9566.13556)

2022  Interrogating Coloniality and Reproductive Coercion in Puerto Rico in Light of Roe v. Wade, Fieldsights: Society for Cultural Anthropology

2022  Introduction: The Cultural Politics of Reproduction in Latin America, Bulletin of Latin American Research (DOI: 10.1111/blar.13357)

2022  Dystopian Eugenics and Mestizo Futurisms in Eduardo Urzaiz’s Eugenia, Bulletin of Latin American Studies (DOI: 10.1111/blar.13395)

2021  The Making of La Gran Familia Mexicana: Eugenics, Gender, and Sexuality in Mexico, Journal of Historical Sociology, Issue 1 (DOI: 10.1111/johs.12308) 

2020  The Legacies of “Race” Science, Anti-Chinese Racism, and COVID-19 in Mexico, Bulletin of Latin American Research, 39 (S1), 35-38 (DOI: 10.1111/blar.13173)

2020  “Shilling for US Empire in Puerto Rico”: The Legacies of Scientific Racism in Economic Science, The Abusable Past at the Radical History Review.

2020  Reggaetón, Trap y Masculinidades: Dinámicas sociales a ritmo del perreo combativo en Puerto Rico (Reggaetón, Spanish Trap, and Masculinities in Puerto Rico), Taller de letras in association with Tintas, Special Issue: Adiós a las Armas: Despatriarcar a América desde la cultura: 42-55

2017  Imágenes y representaciones de control de natalidad, esterilización y anticonceptivos en la prensa puertorriqueña: El Mundo, El Imparcial y Claridad de 1943 a 1974. (Images and Representations of Population Control, Sterilization Procedures and Contraceptives in the Puerto Rican Press), De Raíz Diversa-Revista Especializada en Estudios Latinoamericanos Vol.4, No.7: 101-36.

 

Book Chapters

2024  Eugenics and the “Coloniality of Science”. Routledge Handbook Gender and Reproduction. (Forthcoming)

2024  Sánchez-Rivera, R & Tanna, Natasha. Counterarchiving Coloniality in the Americas: Rita Indiana’s ‘After School’(Forthcoming)

2024  “Whatever…it is Only a Joke?!”: Exploring Memes, Racialization, and Discrimination in Puerto Rico during Hurricanes, Earthquakes, and COVID-19 in Internet, Humor, and Nation in Latin/x America (Forthcoming)

2019  Posicionalidades: Queerness y Eugenesia en Latinoamérica (Positionalities: Queerness and Eugenics in Latin America) in Libro de Actas: Del Otro Lao’

 

Academic Publications

2022  “Los legados de la eugenesia en la construcción de la belleza en Latinoamérica: Una perspectiva interseccional”, Piel Alterna: Revista Política Poética

2022  Murillo et al. “Interrogating Our White Supremacist Present: A Roundtable on Global Histories of Racial Supremacy and Reproductive Control”, NOTCHES: (re)marks on the history of sexuality

2021  Sánchez-Rivera, R. & O’ Shaughnessy A. “Disability, Decoloniality, and Displacement: Exploring Reproductive (In)Justices with the Reproductive Justice Research Network”: ReproBlog

2021  O’Shaughnessy A. & Sánchez-Rivera, R. “An Introduction to the Reproductive Justice Research Network”: ReproBlog

2021  Ogden, R. & Sánchez-Rivera, R. “Exploring reproductive politics, health, and justice in Latin America”: the ‘Cuerpa Politica’ podcast, Institute of Latin American Studies Blog

 

Other Publications

2018  Human Rights Violations and the Chalchihuitán-Chenalhó Land Dispute, Mexico|Politics and Security Section, Latin American News, 105-11

2017  The Structural Dynamics and Limitations of the New Policy on Disappearances, Mexico|Politics and Security Section, Latin American News, 57-62

 

Book Reviews

2023  Review of ‘White Philanthropy: Carnegie Corporation’s An American Dilema and the Making of a White World Order”, Estudios Sociológicos (ColMex)

2022  Review of ‘The Nigrescent Beyond: Mexico, the United States and the Psychic Vanishing of Blackness’, Afro-Hispanic Review (Proactive Commissioning)

2021  Review of ‘Parenting Empires: Class, Whiteness, and the Moral Economy of Privilege in Latin America’, Patterns of Prejudice 10.1080/0031322X.2021.1890363

Grants and Projects

2020: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge

2020: Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS), School of Advanced Study-University of London, Events Grant Scheme-Podcast Series, “The Cultural Politics of Reproduction in Latin America"

2019: Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness, Conference Travel Grant

2019: Global Challenges Research Fund, University of Kent: International Conference for “The Cultural Politics of Reproduction in Latin America”

2019: Society for Latin American Studies, Conference and Seminar Grants: Seminar Series and Reading Groups for “The Cultural Politics of Reproduction in Latin America”

2018: Faculty Research Group Support, Centre for Research in Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CRASSH), University of Cambridge, for “International Black Radicalism”

2018: Simon Bolivar Fund, Centre for Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge

2018: Queens’ College, University of Cambridge, Travel Grant

2017: Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness, Conference and Travel Grant

2017: Queens’ College, University of Cambridge, Travel Grant

2017: Simon Bolivar Fund, Centre for Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge

2016: Santander Mobility Grant, Fieldwork-Mexico City

2014: Dissertation Field Research Travel Grant, Columbia University in the City of New York, Fieldwork-Puerto Rico

Research Groups & Affiliations

Awards

2020: Teaching Award, Supervisor Award, Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge (2019-2020)

Job Title:
ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Queens' College