Hosted by the Humanities Center and graduate fellow, Paula Orozco-Espinel. Respondents include Rachel Kranson from the Religious Studies department and Natalia Acevedo Guerrero, Senior Consultant with the Health and Human Rights Initiative. This event will be hybrid, so you can attend it either in person in 602 CL or via Zoom as you prefer.

Orozco-Espinel explores the role of Colombian OBGYN Jorge Villarreal and the clinic he founded in Bogotá in the 1970s in providing comprehensive reproductive care in Colombia. Drawing from Villarreal’s personal papers, clinic archives, and records from the international organizations he collaborated with, she highlights his, at the time, uncommon approach to reproductive care, which emphasized women’s autonomy in decision-making. This contrasts with the perspectives of other US-educated Colombian doctors who partnered with US entities to promote family planning for population control purposes. Orozco-Espinel examines Villarreal’s transnational connections, including his ties to Preterm Clinics in Boston and his influence in training personnel to perform clandestine abortions across Latin America.

Precirculated material for this colloquium will be available here about two weeks prior and up to the event.