Introduction: Reproductive justice and queer and trans reproduction

Elif Gül; Caroline Hammer; Doris Leibetseder

doi:10.17169/ogj.2026.432

Authors

Elif Gül University of Vienna https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7376-0882
Caroline Hammer University of Graz
Doris Leibetseder University of Basel https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4174-7018

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/ogj.2026.432

Keywords:

Queer, Reproductive Justice, Reproductive Technologies, Trans

Abstract

The introduction of this special issue addresses current political developments surrounding reproductive justice, particularly in the context of trans and queer issues, and outlines the concept of reproductive justice. The idea to the special issue stems from the symposium "Reproductive Justice in the Context of Queer and Trans Reproduction with Assisted Reproductive Technologies," held in 2024 at the University of Graz, and is an outcome of the Elisabeth List project with the same title, led by Martina Schmidhuber and Doris Leibetseder. The content of the conference is summarized, the questions raised by the symposium and the special issue are examined, and the contributions of the special issue are introduced.

Author Biographies

Elif Gül, University of Vienna

Elif Gül (she/none) is a doctoral candidate at the University of Vienna in Gender and Sexuality Studies and Science and Technology Studies, under the supervision of Sabine Grenz. Her dissertation project examines violence in obstetric care in Austria from the perspective of critical feminist medical science and technology studies.

As part of the Elisabeth List Fellowship, Elif spent eight months between 2023 and 2024 at the University of Graz as a junior fellow at the Institute for Moral Theology. Elif completed research stays at the University of Basel (2024) and Humboldt University of Berlin (2025–2026). She was also awarded the Johanna Dohnal Research Prize in 2025.

Caroline Hammer, University of Graz

Caroline Hammer (she/her) is a biotechnologist and ethicist. She is interested in the interplay between technological innovations and their societal implications. She places particular emphasis on (new) reproductive technologies and how they can be used responsibly and ethically. She works as head of the Ethics Platform office at BOKU and on her dissertation on reproductive justice at the faculty of theology at the University of Graz.

Doris Leibetseder, University of Basel

Doris Leibetseder (they/she) is a Post-Doc Assistant at the Center for Gender Studies, University of Basel and obtained their Venia Legendi/habilitation in Gender Research/Studies in 2026 with their work on “queer and trans reproduction with assisted reproductive technologies in Europe”. Doris was an Elisabeth-List-Senior Fellow, University of Graz, a Visiting Scholar at the Reproductive Sociology research group at the University of Cambridge, held a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellowship at the Centre for Gender Research, University of Uppsala, and was a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley (Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society; Department for Gender and Women’s Studies).

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Introduction: Reproductive justice and queer and trans reproduction

Authors

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Abstract