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Driver-labor and Reproductive Justice

Image of Dr. Ray and Dr. Hua and an image of their book Spent Behind the Wheel. There is a description of the book and the colloquium. The text appears on a beige background with a blue and lavender border with an abstract design.

Driver-labor and Reproductive Justice

The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Wednesday, September 28, 2022 3:00 pm - 4:45 pm Van Munching 1107, Conference Room and online

Taxis are often understood as vastly different from gigged driving companies like Uber and Lyft, in part because gigged driving companies market themselves this way. Spent Behind the Wheel traces the ways traditional taxis and the gigged driving sector have more in common than they are different. Specifically, they share the presumption of unfettered access to drivers’ reproductive labor as a means for industry accumulation. We argue that professional passenger ride-for-hire driving is thus best understood through the lens of reproductive labor, the nature of which has historically been occluded behind the masculinized bodies of drivers.

This presentation thinks with reproductive justice lenses to understand the gendered, racial conditions of labor that structure the passenger ride-for-hire industry in the United States, whether taxi or gig. The erosion of abortion rights, in other words, presents an opportunity to broaden the horizon of reproductive justice in unconventional ways, specifically by considering how driver-labor conditions resonate as matters of concern for reproductive justice.

Dr. Julietta Hua is Professor of Women and Gender Studies at San Francisco State University. In addition to her multiple published work with Dr. Kasturi Ray, she is the author of Trafficking Women's Human Rights (MN Press 2012). Her teaching and research focuses on immigration legal histories, politics and race. She is currently also serving as board president of San Francisco SafeHouse, a "housing-first" organization that serves womxn experiencing sexual violence and exploitation.

Dr. Kasturi Ray is Professor of Women and Gender Studies at San Francisco State University. Along with her many publications with Dr. Julietta Hua, she has published work on domestic workers and settler colonialism. She is also Faculty Director of Writing and Reading Equity at her university.

RSVPS are requested.

Add to Calendar 09/28/22 3:00 PM 09/28/22 4:45 PM America/New_York Driver-labor and Reproductive Justice

Taxis are often understood as vastly different from gigged driving companies like Uber and Lyft, in part because gigged driving companies market themselves this way. Spent Behind the Wheel traces the ways traditional taxis and the gigged driving sector have more in common than they are different. Specifically, they share the presumption of unfettered access to drivers’ reproductive labor as a means for industry accumulation. We argue that professional passenger ride-for-hire driving is thus best understood through the lens of reproductive labor, the nature of which has historically been occluded behind the masculinized bodies of drivers.

This presentation thinks with reproductive justice lenses to understand the gendered, racial conditions of labor that structure the passenger ride-for-hire industry in the United States, whether taxi or gig. The erosion of abortion rights, in other words, presents an opportunity to broaden the horizon of reproductive justice in unconventional ways, specifically by considering how driver-labor conditions resonate as matters of concern for reproductive justice.

Dr. Julietta Hua is Professor of Women and Gender Studies at San Francisco State University. In addition to her multiple published work with Dr. Kasturi Ray, she is the author of Trafficking Women's Human Rights (MN Press 2012). Her teaching and research focuses on immigration legal histories, politics and race. She is currently also serving as board president of San Francisco SafeHouse, a "housing-first" organization that serves womxn experiencing sexual violence and exploitation.

Dr. Kasturi Ray is Professor of Women and Gender Studies at San Francisco State University. Along with her many publications with Dr. Julietta Hua, she has published work on domestic workers and settler colonialism. She is also Faculty Director of Writing and Reading Equity at her university.

RSVPS are requested.

Van Munching 1107

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Julia Thompson
jthomp30@umd.edu