The fertility rate has dropped dramatically in 11 of the 27 EU members states in the last 20 years, suggesting a crisis in reproduction in Europe. Fertility is also understood to decline abruptly for women after a certain age, even though the mechanisms of resilience of egg cells remains understudied. Time-lapse microscopy has been at the centre of the way we know about reproductive biology since the early 20th century, and today continues to condition how scientists create images of reproductive cells in laboratory settings. In this sense, animation techniques are key to scientific and popular understandings of both the “biological clock” and the supposed challenges or urgencies of population replacement. This post-doctoral research looks at how microscopy practices are implicated in not only imaging the reproductive cell, but also in 1. Excellence imagining reproduction in crisis. This post-doctoral research project takes the form of academic journal publications, a publicfacing program of conversations and talks and the creation of a short film. This proposed post-doctoral research will contribute to a shared societal understanding of how reproductive issues –from scientific knowledge about reproductive biology to questions of access to reproductive resources and personal choices about one’s reproductive life and future– stand at the centre of public health concerns. This fellowship thus promises a broadening of the lens through which to consider “crisis”, and a vital inclusivity regarding the gender, racial and sexual politics of public health and governance.
