Rebecca Close
@rebecca-close.bsky.social
Reproductive politics | STS | Queer Marxism | Artistic research
https://rebeccaclose.net
Editor https://www.them-all-magazine.com
MSCA post-doc at Institut d’Historia de la ciencia (UAB) Barcelona
& @uccresearch.bsky.social
https://rebeccaclose.net
Editor https://www.them-all-magazine.com
MSCA post-doc at Institut d’Historia de la ciencia (UAB) Barcelona
& @uccresearch.bsky.social
It was wonderful to contribute this week to this celebration of filmmaker @pratibha.bsky.social work at the ICA London.
A new book of essays by myself, Lola Olufemi, @alexispauline.bsky.social
& more is available; “a gift for any artist”researcher and activist
www.smingsming.com/products/our...
A new book of essays by myself, Lola Olufemi, @alexispauline.bsky.social
& more is available; “a gift for any artist”researcher and activist
www.smingsming.com/products/our...
September 6, 2025 at 10:41 AM
It was wonderful to contribute this week to this celebration of filmmaker @pratibha.bsky.social work at the ICA London.
A new book of essays by myself, Lola Olufemi, @alexispauline.bsky.social
& more is available; “a gift for any artist”researcher and activist
www.smingsming.com/products/our...
A new book of essays by myself, Lola Olufemi, @alexispauline.bsky.social
& more is available; “a gift for any artist”researcher and activist
www.smingsming.com/products/our...
Here in Wales for a @bspsuk.bsky.social panel called “Public concern about low fertility: the 1920s and 2020s”. Packed hall and brilliant discussion!
September 2, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Here in Wales for a @bspsuk.bsky.social panel called “Public concern about low fertility: the 1920s and 2020s”. Packed hall and brilliant discussion!
Pretty fascinating study comparing mtDNA mutations in human blood, saliva and oocyte cells, showing how oocyte cells are the only ones that do not show an increase in mutations with age 👁 👁
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Allele frequency selection and no age-related increase in human oocyte mitochondrial mutations
Human oocyte mtDNA mutations do not increase with age and are selected against changes to minimize functional consequences.
www.science.org
August 18, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Pretty fascinating study comparing mtDNA mutations in human blood, saliva and oocyte cells, showing how oocyte cells are the only ones that do not show an increase in mutations with age 👁 👁
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
It’s been just over a year of animation workshops, lab ethnographies and critical artistic research on the topic of reproductive crisis.
Pleased to share a sneak research update via the DOROTHY fellowship blog.
dorothy.ie/2025/06/10/d...
@researchireland.ie @uccresearch.bsky.social
Pleased to share a sneak research update via the DOROTHY fellowship blog.
dorothy.ie/2025/06/10/d...
@researchireland.ie @uccresearch.bsky.social
Dr. Rebecca Close: Visualising Reproduction Through Science and Art | DOROTHY
My research is all about the role of images in creating knowledge about reproductive biology, and how time-lapse microscopy specifically has historically shaped how we
dorothy.ie
June 16, 2025 at 7:49 AM
It’s been just over a year of animation workshops, lab ethnographies and critical artistic research on the topic of reproductive crisis.
Pleased to share a sneak research update via the DOROTHY fellowship blog.
dorothy.ie/2025/06/10/d...
@researchireland.ie @uccresearch.bsky.social
Pleased to share a sneak research update via the DOROTHY fellowship blog.
dorothy.ie/2025/06/10/d...
@researchireland.ie @uccresearch.bsky.social
Great #repromob roundtable!
Clinicians experience alongside critiques of the ownership structures of global clinic chains.
Loved sharing my paper too on software fixes for fertility crisis.
More reproductive mobilities presentations today 🌱
Clinicians experience alongside critiques of the ownership structures of global clinic chains.
Loved sharing my paper too on software fixes for fertility crisis.
More reproductive mobilities presentations today 🌱
June 12, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Great #repromob roundtable!
Clinicians experience alongside critiques of the ownership structures of global clinic chains.
Loved sharing my paper too on software fixes for fertility crisis.
More reproductive mobilities presentations today 🌱
Clinicians experience alongside critiques of the ownership structures of global clinic chains.
Loved sharing my paper too on software fixes for fertility crisis.
More reproductive mobilities presentations today 🌱
Reposted by Rebecca Close
"Them, All" is a really special thing – check out the whole thing and some shrubby poems from me, too.
⚠️Issue # 5 now posted! ⚠️
Iona, Sam, QiP and noï share vital writing on erasure.
Them, All is a podcast and online magazine for poetry and critical writing on reproduction, hosted by Systerserver.
Read or listen here:
them-all-magazine.com/projects.html
them-all-magazine.com/podcast.html
Iona, Sam, QiP and noï share vital writing on erasure.
Them, All is a podcast and online magazine for poetry and critical writing on reproduction, hosted by Systerserver.
Read or listen here:
them-all-magazine.com/projects.html
them-all-magazine.com/podcast.html
June 1, 2025 at 9:09 AM
"Them, All" is a really special thing – check out the whole thing and some shrubby poems from me, too.
⚠️Issue # 5 now posted! ⚠️
Iona, Sam, QiP and noï share vital writing on erasure.
Them, All is a podcast and online magazine for poetry and critical writing on reproduction, hosted by Systerserver.
Read or listen here:
them-all-magazine.com/projects.html
them-all-magazine.com/podcast.html
Iona, Sam, QiP and noï share vital writing on erasure.
Them, All is a podcast and online magazine for poetry and critical writing on reproduction, hosted by Systerserver.
Read or listen here:
them-all-magazine.com/projects.html
them-all-magazine.com/podcast.html
May 30, 2025 at 12:41 PM
⚠️Issue # 5 now posted! ⚠️
Iona, Sam, QiP and noï share vital writing on erasure.
Them, All is a podcast and online magazine for poetry and critical writing on reproduction, hosted by Systerserver.
Read or listen here:
them-all-magazine.com/projects.html
them-all-magazine.com/podcast.html
Iona, Sam, QiP and noï share vital writing on erasure.
Them, All is a podcast and online magazine for poetry and critical writing on reproduction, hosted by Systerserver.
Read or listen here:
them-all-magazine.com/projects.html
them-all-magazine.com/podcast.html
Calling reproduction people in and beyond London! Get your tickets to #ReproSalon next Friday 30th 🌅
a shining annual event to discuss and think through in community all things repro, organised by @lucyvandewiel.bsky.social
a shining annual event to discuss and think through in community all things repro, organised by @lucyvandewiel.bsky.social
Another year, another #ReproSalon! It's time to come together again for a spectacular evening on the Bush House rooftop terrace, overlooking the gorgeous London sunset. 30 May. 🎉
Looking forward to reconnecting with #reproduction people in style. Tickets:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/new-reprod...
Looking forward to reconnecting with #reproduction people in style. Tickets:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/new-reprod...
New Reproduction Salon + New Reproductive Order Book Launch
The Reproduction Salon returns and we will launch the exciting new book The New Reproductive Order (NYU Press, 2025)
www.eventbrite.co.uk
May 23, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Calling reproduction people in and beyond London! Get your tickets to #ReproSalon next Friday 30th 🌅
a shining annual event to discuss and think through in community all things repro, organised by @lucyvandewiel.bsky.social
a shining annual event to discuss and think through in community all things repro, organised by @lucyvandewiel.bsky.social
Nice to see this mention of my work on facial matching algorithms for donor selection. Recommended new ethnographic scholarship on “enacting resemblance” in assisted reproduction in the Dutch context.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
“Not Too Different”: Doing Resemblance, Enacting Boundaries in Sperm Donor Matching For/By Dutch Intended Parents
Scholars writing about selecting gamete donors have emphasized the importance of resemblance when choosing a donor. However, while they have thoroughly researched the question of why prospective pa...
www.tandfonline.com
May 19, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Nice to see this mention of my work on facial matching algorithms for donor selection. Recommended new ethnographic scholarship on “enacting resemblance” in assisted reproduction in the Dutch context.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Rebecca Close
Really enjoyed this paper, especially the use of a scifi narrative at the end.
Looking forward to our panel today at the @sociologyireland.bsky.social . Thanks to colleagues for organising.
I’ll be talking about the limited “biological mode” of hypothetical thinking and switch on/off policy solutions for dealing with declining fertility rates in Europe.
I’ll be talking about the limited “biological mode” of hypothetical thinking and switch on/off policy solutions for dealing with declining fertility rates in Europe.
May 8, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Really enjoyed this paper, especially the use of a scifi narrative at the end.
Looking forward to our panel today at the @sociologyireland.bsky.social . Thanks to colleagues for organising.
I’ll be talking about the limited “biological mode” of hypothetical thinking and switch on/off policy solutions for dealing with declining fertility rates in Europe.
I’ll be talking about the limited “biological mode” of hypothetical thinking and switch on/off policy solutions for dealing with declining fertility rates in Europe.
May 8, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Looking forward to our panel today at the @sociologyireland.bsky.social . Thanks to colleagues for organising.
I’ll be talking about the limited “biological mode” of hypothetical thinking and switch on/off policy solutions for dealing with declining fertility rates in Europe.
I’ll be talking about the limited “biological mode” of hypothetical thinking and switch on/off policy solutions for dealing with declining fertility rates in Europe.
fellow DOROTHY MSCA colleague @fearoncassidy.bsky.social sums up this recent article on the soft eugenics of maga’s health market expansion, from her metabolic health research perspective.
“Soft” eugenics without social healthcare makes the quiet part loud - this isn’t about who is “fit”, and isn’t just racist, sexist and ableist, it ensures that healthfulness costs money. There is a lot of money to be made from treating preventable illnesses. Why spend less when you could spend more?
Interesting if dystopian view of MAGA/MAHAv policies as soft eugenics
May 5, 2025 at 11:47 AM
fellow DOROTHY MSCA colleague @fearoncassidy.bsky.social sums up this recent article on the soft eugenics of maga’s health market expansion, from her metabolic health research perspective.
A little reminder that Francis Galton coined the term “co-relation” 😱
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
The “Correlation” Between Statistics and Eugenics | Los Angeles Review of Books
In the second essay of the Legacies of Eugenics series, Aubrey Clayton excavates the troubling correlation between the birth of statistical methods and the history of eugenics.
lareviewofbooks.org
April 12, 2025 at 7:21 PM
A little reminder that Francis Galton coined the term “co-relation” 😱
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
Beautiful workshop! We talked about animation and the politics of the body + life and made some brilliant and funny films that give voice to the elements.
Thanks to Hamaca in Barcelona for co-coordinating, loved sharing ongoing postdoc work.
@researchireland.bsky.social
@uccresearch.bsky.social
Thanks to Hamaca in Barcelona for co-coordinating, loved sharing ongoing postdoc work.
@researchireland.bsky.social
@uccresearch.bsky.social
April 11, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Beautiful workshop! We talked about animation and the politics of the body + life and made some brilliant and funny films that give voice to the elements.
Thanks to Hamaca in Barcelona for co-coordinating, loved sharing ongoing postdoc work.
@researchireland.bsky.social
@uccresearch.bsky.social
Thanks to Hamaca in Barcelona for co-coordinating, loved sharing ongoing postdoc work.
@researchireland.bsky.social
@uccresearch.bsky.social
Current right-wing + far right backlash against choice and sex/gender equality is worryingly reflected in key public health policy statement at this year’s 69th Commission on the Status of Women at the UN, which omits sexual and reproductive health commitments for the first time since 1995.
A tale of two conferences: women against women as ‘poison of patriarchy’ returns and abortion fight intensifies
A tale of two conferences: women against women as ‘poison of patriarchy’ returns and abortion fight intensifies
Last week, anti-choice campaigners emboldened by current US politics met in New York at the same time as UN delegates gathered to address the widespread inequalities women face. The battle to protect rights has never felt more urgent
In a meeting room on the 27th floor of a swish Manhattan hotel, Denise Mountenay is telling the audience that the right to abortion is “Nazi thinking.” Mountenay regrets her own abortions, and says she has been called by God to spread the word that she and other women “were lied to, deceived, pressured into making the most horrible choice: to choose death instead of life”.
She goes on to list reasons why abortion is “not a safe procedure. [That’s what] they want woman to think – that is a lie.” Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
March 22, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Current right-wing + far right backlash against choice and sex/gender equality is worryingly reflected in key public health policy statement at this year’s 69th Commission on the Status of Women at the UN, which omits sexual and reproductive health commitments for the first time since 1995.
Reposted by Rebecca Close
Excited to announce that ‘Networks of queer reproduction in Sappho magazine (1972-81)’ by Rebecca Close is out now 🌐✨
This piece is part of our special issue on Feminist
Media in Transition for the Journal of Gender Studies
Read it here!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
This piece is part of our special issue on Feminist
Media in Transition for the Journal of Gender Studies
Read it here!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Networks of queer reproduction in Sappho magazine (1972–1981)
In 1978 the London Evening News ran a series of ‘exposés’ on the UK lesbian organization and magazine Sappho and their Artificial Insemination by Donor (A.I.D) network. This article situates the Sa...
www.tandfonline.com
March 3, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Excited to announce that ‘Networks of queer reproduction in Sappho magazine (1972-81)’ by Rebecca Close is out now 🌐✨
This piece is part of our special issue on Feminist
Media in Transition for the Journal of Gender Studies
Read it here!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
This piece is part of our special issue on Feminist
Media in Transition for the Journal of Gender Studies
Read it here!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
🌟 New article on UK magazine Sappho and their 1970s proto-fertility clinic🌟
An infrastructural reading of breaking apart reproduction 🛠 looking back from Them, All magazine, hooked to Systerserver.
Reflections on networks, imagination and scale.
👀 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
An infrastructural reading of breaking apart reproduction 🛠 looking back from Them, All magazine, hooked to Systerserver.
Reflections on networks, imagination and scale.
👀 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Networks of queer reproduction in Sappho magazine (1972–1981)
In 1978 the London Evening News ran a series of ‘exposés’ on the UK lesbian organization and magazine Sappho and their Artificial Insemination by Donor (A.I.D) network. This article situates the Sa...
www.tandfonline.com
February 4, 2025 at 7:04 AM
🌟 New article on UK magazine Sappho and their 1970s proto-fertility clinic🌟
An infrastructural reading of breaking apart reproduction 🛠 looking back from Them, All magazine, hooked to Systerserver.
Reflections on networks, imagination and scale.
👀 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
An infrastructural reading of breaking apart reproduction 🛠 looking back from Them, All magazine, hooked to Systerserver.
Reflections on networks, imagination and scale.
👀 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The under-reported side of the fertility crisis: elderly life and care.
“Family building” programs, however progressive, could also shift focus and attend to a necessary radical transformation of elderly life, including better wages for care workers.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
“Family building” programs, however progressive, could also shift focus and attend to a necessary radical transformation of elderly life, including better wages for care workers.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
You might live to be 100. Are you ready?
A demographic change is unfolding, and many of us can expect a long life. It’s time to provide the support needed
www.theguardian.com
January 31, 2025 at 3:45 PM
The under-reported side of the fertility crisis: elderly life and care.
“Family building” programs, however progressive, could also shift focus and attend to a necessary radical transformation of elderly life, including better wages for care workers.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
“Family building” programs, however progressive, could also shift focus and attend to a necessary radical transformation of elderly life, including better wages for care workers.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
This quote from The Uses of the Erotic (1978).
Audre Lorde may have read the current media / techbro gathering around the fascist salute as a continuation of the “Euroamerican tradition where needs are fulfilled by certain proscribed erotic comings-together, whether religion…or mob violence…”
Audre Lorde may have read the current media / techbro gathering around the fascist salute as a continuation of the “Euroamerican tradition where needs are fulfilled by certain proscribed erotic comings-together, whether religion…or mob violence…”
January 28, 2025 at 10:45 AM
This quote from The Uses of the Erotic (1978).
Audre Lorde may have read the current media / techbro gathering around the fascist salute as a continuation of the “Euroamerican tradition where needs are fulfilled by certain proscribed erotic comings-together, whether religion…or mob violence…”
Audre Lorde may have read the current media / techbro gathering around the fascist salute as a continuation of the “Euroamerican tradition where needs are fulfilled by certain proscribed erotic comings-together, whether religion…or mob violence…”
Spam for president! @grantamag.bsky.social
I got to share a Ludd Gang issue with this legend.
poetshardshipfunduk.com/about/
I got to share a Ludd Gang issue with this legend.
poetshardshipfunduk.com/about/
January 21, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Spam for president! @grantamag.bsky.social
I got to share a Ludd Gang issue with this legend.
poetshardshipfunduk.com/about/
I got to share a Ludd Gang issue with this legend.
poetshardshipfunduk.com/about/
It was so fruitful to share this work on algorithms as fertility world fixed capital at the @histmat.bsky.social london and barcelona conferences and @uccresearch.bsky.social last year.
The full article is now online open access here 🍑 🍒
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The full article is now online open access here 🍑 🍒
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The Fertility Fix: the Boom in Facial-matching Algorithms for Donor Selection in Assisted Reproduction in Spain
This article reads the uptake of facial-matching algorithms by fertility clinics in Spain through the lens of ‘the fertility fix’: a software fix to the social reconfiguration of kinship and a fixe...
www.tandfonline.com
January 21, 2025 at 8:08 AM
It was so fruitful to share this work on algorithms as fertility world fixed capital at the @histmat.bsky.social london and barcelona conferences and @uccresearch.bsky.social last year.
The full article is now online open access here 🍑 🍒
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The full article is now online open access here 🍑 🍒
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Rebecca Close
I thought I’d start putting together a list for people working within queer and trans Marxism.
Please let me know if that’s you, so I can add you!
go.bsky.app/6sdaeHP
Please let me know if that’s you, so I can add you!
go.bsky.app/6sdaeHP
January 15, 2025 at 6:09 PM
I thought I’d start putting together a list for people working within queer and trans Marxism.
Please let me know if that’s you, so I can add you!
go.bsky.app/6sdaeHP
Please let me know if that’s you, so I can add you!
go.bsky.app/6sdaeHP
Fertility crisis headlines continue to cite Total Fertility Rates (TFRs) + the second demographic transition. These are highly contested hypothesis and measures of decline that sneak in modern-colonial imaginations of nation state, immigration, gender and reproduction.
www.ft.com/content/f0d2...
www.ft.com/content/f0d2...
Birth rates in rich countries halve to hit record low
Steep decline in fertility will ‘change face of societies’ and affect growth prospects, says OECD
www.ft.com
January 17, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Fertility crisis headlines continue to cite Total Fertility Rates (TFRs) + the second demographic transition. These are highly contested hypothesis and measures of decline that sneak in modern-colonial imaginations of nation state, immigration, gender and reproduction.
www.ft.com/content/f0d2...
www.ft.com/content/f0d2...
How does social and biological reproduction become the material of public governance and policy?
Great that such questions are being anthologised anew for today’s repro-techno-world.
New book affirming the value of comparative studies of policy.
@hannahzagel.bsky.social
@ralmeling.bsky.social
Great that such questions are being anthologised anew for today’s repro-techno-world.
New book affirming the value of comparative studies of policy.
@hannahzagel.bsky.social
@ralmeling.bsky.social
Our book is out! It will be available open access soon. Read about reproduction policy in the welfare state from various comparative perspectives.
www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/rep...
www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/rep...
Reproduction Policy in the Twenty-First Century
‘This book is truly going somewhere new, elucidating reproduction policy as a field of study and critically integrating it into comparative welfare state research. It shines an original light on an un...
www.e-elgar.com
January 7, 2025 at 12:47 PM
How does social and biological reproduction become the material of public governance and policy?
Great that such questions are being anthologised anew for today’s repro-techno-world.
New book affirming the value of comparative studies of policy.
@hannahzagel.bsky.social
@ralmeling.bsky.social
Great that such questions are being anthologised anew for today’s repro-techno-world.
New book affirming the value of comparative studies of policy.
@hannahzagel.bsky.social
@ralmeling.bsky.social