In this episode we speak to Professor Gabriela Soto Laveaga, from Harvard University. Professor Soto Laveaga’s research interests encompass the intersection of science and culture and public health in Latin America, and scientific and medical exchange in the Global South. She is the author of Jungle Laboratories: Mexican Peasants, National Projects and the Making of the Pill. In this conversation, we discuss Mexico’s place at the centre of one of the most important breakthroughs in reproductive science - the development of the contraceptive pill, and the peasant communities whose knowledge and labour made that development possible. We also discuss the need to decolonise approaches to reproductive science, the role of culture in shaping and extending public health messaging through the twentieth century, and what pandemics and health emergencies reveal about pre-existing social, racial and class tensions.
Links:
Laboratorios en la selva: campesinos mexicanos, proyectos nacionales y la creación de la píldora anticonceptiva: https://www.casadellibro.com/ebook-laboratorios-en-la-selva-ebook/9786071669131/11803314
Jungle Laboratories: Mexican Peasants, National Projects, and the Making of the Pill: https://www.dukeupress.edu/jungle-laboratories
In this episode we speak to Professor Gabriela Soto Laveaga, from Harvard University. Professor Soto Laveaga’s research interests encompass the intersection of science and culture and public health in Latin America, and scientific and medical exchange in the Global South. She is the author of Jungle Laboratories: Mexican Peasants, National Projects and the Making of the Pill. In this conversation, we discuss Mexico’s place at the centre of one of the most important breakthroughs in reproductive science - the development of the contraceptive pill, and the peasant communities whose knowledge and labour made that development possible. We also discuss the need to decolonise approaches to reproductive science, the role of culture in shaping and extending public health messaging through the twentieth century, and what pandemics and health emergencies reveal about pre-existing social, racial and class tensions.
Links:
Laboratorios en la selva: campesinos mexicanos, proyectos nacionales y la creación de la píldora anticonceptiva: https://www.casadellibro.com/ebook-laboratorios-en-la-selva-ebook/9786071669131/11803314
Jungle Laboratories: Mexican Peasants, National Projects, and the Making of the Pill: https://www.dukeupress.edu/jungle-laboratories