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Conference: The Age of Roe: The Past, Present, and Future of Abortion in America

Age of Roe Conference graphic by MR

Harvard Radcliffe Institute will hold a major public conference January 26–27, 2023, to probe the complex and unpredictable ways that Roe v. Wade and its aftermath shaped the United States and the world beyond it for nearly half a century. The existential issue of abortion—and the galvanizing impact of Roe in particular—transformed the nation’s politics and public policy and its social movement energies, as well as the operations of the courtroom and the clinic. 

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, eminent thinkers will gather as a diverse group, along many axes of difference, neither to praise Roe nor to bury it. Focusing on five major themes—voices from the front lines, international contexts, race and class, American public life, and visions of the future—a broad array of scholars, clinicians, and activists will engage in searching, interdisciplinary discussions to anatomize Roe’s impacts, including in the post-Dobbs landscape.

See "The Age of Roe: Voices from the Front Lines" for event information to Thursday, January 26, 2023, evening program.

Lessons of Roe, 50 Years Later (Harvard Gazette, 1/31/23)

Fifty Years after Roe Decision, Harvard Radcliffe Institute Hosts Conference on Abortion in America (Harvard Crimson, 1/30/23)

Event Videos

View video of The Age Of Roe conference session on International Contexts

Welcome and Introduction

  • Tomiko Brown-Nagin, dean, Harvard Radcliffe Institute; Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law, Harvard Law School; professor of history, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences


Framing Remarks

  • Jane Kamensky, Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Harvard Radcliffe Institute, and Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences

         

Session 1: International Contexts

  • Donald T. Critchlow, Katzin Family Professor, Arizona State University
  • Ruby Yuen Shan Lai, assistant professor, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, Lingnan University (Hong Kong)
  • Fiona de Londras, chair of global legal studies, Birmingham Law School 
  • Moderator: Alicia Ely Yamin, lecturer on law and senior fellow on global health and rights, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics, Harvard Law School

Video video of The Age Of Roe conference session on Race and Class

Session 2: Race and Class

  • Khiara M. Bridges, professor of law, UC Berkeley School of Law
  • MT Dávila, chair, religious and theologies studies, and associate professor of practice, Merrimack College
  • Melissa J. Wilde, professor of sociology, University of Pennsylvania 
  • Moderator: Jeannie Suk Gersen, John H. Watson, Jr. Professor of Law, Harvard Law School 

Video video of The Age Of Roe conference session on American Public Life

Session 3: American Public Life

View video of The Age Of Roe conference session on Visions of the Future

Session 4: Visions of the Future

  • Erika Bachiochi, fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center; senior fellow, Abigail Adams Institute; and founder and director, The Wollstonecraft Project
  • Charles Camosy, professor of medical humanities, Creighton University School of Medicine and Msgr. Michael J. Curran Fellow of Moral Theology, Saint Joseph’s Seminary and College
  • I. Glenn Cohen, James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law; deputy dean; and faculty director, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics, Harvard Law School
  • Joanna Erdman, professor of law and MacBain Chair in Health Law and Policy, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University (Canada) 
  • Sherif Girgis, associate professor of law, Notre Dame Law School 
  • Evelynn Hammonds, Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and of African and African American Studies, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and professor, social and behavioral sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
  • Louise P. King, assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology, Harvard Medical School
  • Monica McLemore, professor, Department of Child, Family, and Population Health Nursing, University of Washington School of Nursing
  • Melissa Murray, Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law and faculty director, Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Network, New York University School of Law
  • Presiding: Jill Lepore, David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences

           
Closing Remarks

  • Mary Ziegler, Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law

Related Events

The exhibition The Age of Roe: The Past, Present, and Future of Abortion in America is on view October 24, 2022–March 4, 2023, in the Schlesinger Library at Harvard Radcliffe Institute.

For those interested in additional programming related to this topic, the Boston University School of Law and School of Public Health are cosponsoring a conference, timed to coordinate with the Radcliffe programs, “After Roe and Dobbs: Seeking Reproductive Justice in the Next Fifty Years,” on Thursday, January 26, 2023, at BU.

Please also see "The Age of Roe: Related Events."

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