Affinity: Solidarities of reproduction and relationships 1 - 3 September 2026 Future Africa | University of Pretoria | South Africa

[Emma Kowal]

Call for papers and closed panels.

Affinity: Solidarities of reproduction and relationships

1 - 3 September 2026

Future Africa | University of Pretoria | South Africa

Scholars in various disciplines use the notion of "affinity" to

describe closeness, similarity, aptitude and attraction. Affinity

speaks to the ties that bind: bonds of blood and closeness; the

entanglements of partnerships and marriage; the kin we choose,

the kin we make, and the kin that choose us. It describes

solidarities of ideas, place, and emotion, as well as attachments

mediated by care and technology. Across various spheres

worldwide, reproductive life – its aspirations, labours, and

infrastructures – is increasingly governed through moralising

frames. These frames are often divisive, intending to promote

difference, discord and inequality.

As a follow-up to the Re-worlding Reproduction conference held

at the University of Pretoria in 2024, Affinity, our second

conference, considers the ongoing attempts to create, contest,

and nurture ideas of similarity, closeness and attraction. Affinity

extends the project of re-worlding by taking as a given the

multiplicity of reproductive worlds, practices, and futures; it

invites us to centre “affinity” in the processes and practices of

re-worlding reproduction in times of political upheaval,

environmental precarity, and shifting moral worlds.

In Affinity, we gather to remake how reproduction is known, lived

and valued through solidarities that transcend blood, extend

across relationships, and cross disciplinary divides, including

linguistic, geographical, and generational divides. We

specifically encourage contributors to reflect on how we can

centre knowledges from the South to

rethink/reimagine/disrupt/intervene in how we understand,

value, and represent reproductive life. Affinity is a call to stand

together and think otherwise, to refuse narrow scripts that

naturalise certain types of relatedness and universalise

Northern theories.