Podcast Episode 15 – California’s Eugenic Sterilization Program

Natalie Lira (University of Illinois) discusses her work on eugenic sterilization, race, and reproductive justice in California.

Episode Image: Aerial photograph of Sonoma State Home, from 1950-52 Biennial Report of the California Department of Mental Hygiene, courtesy of Alex Wallerstein. The black and white image shows manicured grounds and numerous large, institutional buildings.

Download mp3 file here.
Download pdf transcript here.

About Our Guest

Natalie Lira is an interdisciplinary scholar who examines the politics of reproduction and the ways that U.S. histories of racial and reproductive justice intersect. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an affiliate in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies. Natalie is currently writing a book on Mexican-origin women and men’s experiences of sterilization and confinement in California state institutions during the early to mid-twentieth century. You can find her work in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies and the American Journal of Public Health.

More information about the collaborative Sterilization and Social Justice Lab project mentioned in the interview is available at https://sites.google.com/umich.edu/ssj-mini-conference/sterilization-social-justice-lab.