Infertility in History, Science and Culture Conference

This international conference was held in July 2013, co-convened by academics from the University of Edinburgh and Cardiff University.

The conference was an opportunity to bring together researchers working in the under-explored field of infertility on history, science and culture. Professor Margaret Marsh (Rutgers University) gave the keynote address, ‘Infertility and Beyond: Writing the History of Reproductive Medicine in the 21st Century’.

There were a number of panel discussions across the three days which concluded with the closing discussion, 'Stratified Reproduction and Bioavailable Women in a Globalised Market for Infertility’, led by Professor Naomi Pfeffer (SDS, University College London). Download the presentation or listen to the discussion.

The conference was hosted by the University of Edinburgh and co-convened by Dr. Gayle Davis (University of Edinburgh) and Dr. Tracey Loughran (Cardiff University).

Panel discussions

Panel 1: (Un)Reproductive Bodies: Regulating Fertility

A panel discussion chaired by Jennifer Evans. The panellists were:

• Bridget Gurtler (Rutgers University), Gender, Reproductive Science, and the Naming of Artificial Insemination, 1790 - 1940. Listen to the paper. Download the presentation.
• Sarah Toulalan (University of Exeter), ‘Women that Be Leane & Slender Do Not Conceaue’: Thin Bodies and Infertility in Early Modern England.
• Anne Hanley (University of Cambridge), Venereal Infertility and the Infection of Women and Children, c.1880 - 1913. Listen to the paper. Download the presentation.

Panel 2: Medicine, Technology and Changing Conceptions of Infertility

A panel discussion chaired by Tracey Loughran. The panellists were:

• Ramona Braun (University of Cambridge), Hairy Bodies, Smooth Ovaries and the ‘Simple Cut’: Androgen Excess in the Eyes and Hands of Laparoscopic Surgeons in the 1960s.
• Liberty Barnes (University of Cambridge), Harnessing Power and Maintaining Control: Infertile Men’s Use of Medical Technologies. Listen to the paper.
• Daniela Cutas (Maastricht University), Infertility in the Future: No More?

Panel 3: The Body Politic: Infertility and the State

A panel discussion chaired by Gayle Davis. The panellists were:

• Penny Roberts (University of Warwick), Sterility and Sovereignty: the Succession Crisis of the Late Valois Monarchy. Listen to the paper. Download the presentation.
• Antje Kampf (Universitätsmedizin der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), “Urogenital Borderlands”: Male Infertility and Medicine in Two Germanys. Listen to the paper.
• Fran Bigman (University of Cambridge), The Authority’s Anti-Breeding Campaign: State-imposed Infertility in Contemporary Speculative Fiction. Listen to the paper.

Panel 4: Concepts of Blame and Responsibility in Discourses on Infertility

A panel discussion chaired by Sarah Toulalan. The panellists were:

• Rebecca Fallas (Open University), No Fault Infertility? The Relationship Between Infertility and Blame in the Ancient Medical Texts.
• Cristina Santos Pinheiro (University of Madeira/ University of Lisboa), The Ancient Medical Texts in the Chapters About Infertility of Rodrigo de Castro’s De Universa Mulierum Medicina. Listen to the paper. Download the presentation.
• Catherine Rider (University of Exeter), Responses to Infertility in Late Medieval England. Listen to the paper.
• Marisa Benoit (University of Oxford), To Pity, Revile, or Ridicule?: Popular Stereotypes of Infertility in Early Modern England and Colonial New England. Listen to the paper. Download the presentation.

Panel 5: Reproducing the Nation: Gender, Family and Fertility

A panel discussion chaired by Duncan Wilson. The panellists were:

• Daphna Oren-Magidor (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), “To Have a Jolly Child of Mine Owne Body Borne:” The Significance of Infertility in Early Modern England. Listen to the paper.
• Christina Benninghaus (University of Cambridge), Making it Happen: Diagnosing and Treating Infertility in Weimar Germany.
• Hayley Andrew (York University, Toronto), ‘Phantom Fathers’ and ‘Test Tube Babies’: Reproductive Technologies in the British Media, c.1950 - 1960. Listen to the paper.

Panel 6: Contexts of Infertility: Individuals and Families

A panel discussion chaired by Tracey Loughran. The panellists were:

• Lisa Smith (University of Saskatchewan), The Lived Experience of Infertility in the Eighteenth Century. Listen to the paper.
• Roona Simpson (University of Glasgow), Narratives of Infertility: Case Studies from Quantitative Data.
  Listen to the paper. Download the presentation.
• Sally Bishop Shigley (Weber State University, Utah), Great Expectations: Infertility as Disability in Literature and Life. Listen to the paper.

Panel 7: Doctor-Patient Relations

A panel discussion chaired by Lisa Smith. The panellists were:

• Jennifer Evans (Society for Renaissance Studies), ‘Let the Fume be Received Through a Tunnel’: Barrenness and Aromatic Treatments in Seventeenth-Century England.
• Sophie Vasset (Université Paris-Diderot), Taking the Waters at Barèges (Pyrénées, France): Dr Delpit’s Diagnosis of Infertility in 1829. Listen to the paper.
• Sofia Gameiro & Jacky Boivin (Cardiff University), The History of Psychology in Infertility Medicine. Listen to the paper. Download the presentation.

Panel 8: Demography and Degeneration: Infertility and Population Politics

A panel discussion chaired by Anne Hanley. The panellists were:

• Simon Szreter (University of Cambridge), Venereal Disease and Infertility in Late Victorian and Edwardian England and Wales.
• Fabrice Cahen (Institut National d’Etudes Démographiques), The Struggle Against Infertility in France, 1920-1980. Listen to the paper. Download the presentation.

Panel 9: Doctors, Patients and Reproductive Rights

A panel discussion chaired by Liberty Barnes. The panellists were:

• Shurlee Swain (Australian Catholic University), ‘We Have Not Been Blessed’: The Interplay Between Infertility and Adoption in Policy and Practice in Twentieth-Century Australia. Listen to the paper. Download the presentation.
• Duncan Wilson (University of Manchester), Infertility, In Vitro Fertilization, and ‘the Right to Have a Child’ in the 1970s. Listen to the paper. Download the presentation.

Panel 10: Infertility, Ageing and Agency

A panel discussion chaired by Tracey Loughran. The panellists were:

• Jenna Healey (Yale University), The Clock is Ticking: Delayed Pregnancy and the “Epidemic” of Infertility in the United States, 1975 - 1990. Listen to the paper. Download the presentation.
• Lucy van de Wiel (University of Amsterdam), Anticipatory Reproduction: Representing Oocyte Cryopreservation.

Sponsors

The conference organisers gratefully acknowledge the support of:

• Wellcome Trust
• Society for the Social History of Medicine
• Royal Historical Society
• University of Edinburgh
• Cardiff University.

Related resources

These are some useful resources that can help you explore this field in more depth:

• Health Talk Online is dedicated to hosting patients’ stories about their illness and treatment
• Institut National d’Etudes Démographiques (INED) is the largest institute of population research in the world
• Perceptions of Pregnancy is a multi-disciplinary network for researchers working on fertility, pregnancy and childbirth from the earliest times to the present day
• Science Museum Online includes a database of pictures of scientific and medical instruments
• Wellcome Images provides an invaluable source of images relating to the history of medicine and science
• Emmanuel Betta, L’altra genisi: storia della fecondazione artificiale investigates the history of artificial reproduction, from Spallanzani’s experiments in the eighteenth century, up to the most recent developments in genetic engineering.