Natalie Lira: Eugenic Sterilization, Reparations, and the Legacy of Anti-Latinx Medical Racism in California

Date: 
February 3, 2021
Time: 
3:30-5 p.m.
Place: 
Zoom

The REPAIR Project presents a Campus Forum with Dr. Natalie Lira, Assistant Professor at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and expert on Latinx sterilization history. 

Between the 1910s and 1960s, state officials across the United States sterilized 60,000 people under eugenic laws inspired by ableist, racist, and sexist assertions about who deserves the right to reproduce. About 1/3 of those sterilizations occurred in California. Centering Latinx patients' experiences, Dr. Natalie Lira will discuss California's eugenic sterilization program and how doctors and clinicians combined racist and ableist logics to justify sterilizations. Dr. Lira will explore the legacy of eugenic sterilization, building a case for reparations to address this historical injustice. Post-talk Q&A moderated by REPAIR Project Steering Committee member Carlos Martinez.

Please register in advance and join us for this event on zoom.

To join the Student Reflection with Natalie Lira, please preregister using Eventbrite.

See our primer on medical reparations for introductory readings and our resource page on Eugenic Sterilization & Reparations to see publications and resources from our speaker and moderator. We look forward to engaging you in discussion at our second campus forum!