Reproductive Justice

Operating since 2022 this multidisciplinary group works to create a space where researchers at UWM and reproductive justice community advocates in Milwaukee can work together to address systemic injustices disproportionately affecting Black, Latinx, and other women and trans people of color. As a collective, we have held a variety of events in both academic and community spaces, and seek to continue this important work in the face of uncertainty in the reproductive justice space. We work across various aspects of reproductive injustices, including issues of access across zip codes, early childhood education, birth justice, and physical environment — to name just a few. We have learned alongside our community partners how important it is to not silo this work, and aim to continue bringing attention to reproductive injustices in Milwaukee and act as a resource for making substantial changes to improve the conditions within which individuals can exercise their “human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities” (SisterSong).

We welcome inquiries for anyone who would like to learn more about this group and possibly become a university or community member.

To inquire contact: Maria Novotny, PhD at novotnmt@uwm.edu.

Members

Amber Chavez (she/they) is a 3rd year PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the Public Rhetorics and Community Engagement program, where she teaches First Year Composition and Technical and Professional Writing. She is the Graduate Representative of the CCCC Medical Rhetoric Standing Group, serves as one of the editors for Plan B: a journal of reproductive justice, and is an alumni Project Fellow for Mapping Racism and Resistance in Milwaukee. A mother, scholar, educator, and activist, their interest in Reproductive Justice is informed by their experience as an early childhood teacher and reproductive body. Originally trained as a Kindergarten teacher and still active in the Waldorf schools movement, Amber works to support young children and their families through her research and community practice, centered on care and liberation. She currently works as a Program Coordinator at the Medical College of Wisconsin on an NIH-funded U54 project addressing Black birth equity in Milwaukee.

Tara Knight (she/they) is a PhD student in English at UW-Milwaukee. Her research focuses on rhetorics of health and medicine, community engaged research, and feminist and queer theory, specifically examining infant feeding rhetorics and breastfeeding challenges, both intrinsic and extrinsic, through an RJ lens. Tara has worked with the Fed is Best Foundation and the Low Milk Supply Foundation, serves as one of the editors for Plan B: a journal of reproductive justice, and teaches English and writing classes at UW-Milwaukee. She has been published in the Journal of Basic Writing (43.2) and on the Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Online blog and has presented at several regional and national conferences.

Lindsey Krug (she/her) is a designer and Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at UW-Milwaukee. Her research, at the intersection of architecture and law, explores how space and legal precedent together mediate bodily autonomy. Her design research project titled “Corpus Comunis: Precedent, Privacy, and the United States Supreme Court, in Seven Architectural Case Studies” was awarded the 2023 Best Peer-Reviewed Research Project by the ACSA College of Distinguished Professors, featured in the traveling exhibition called “Spatializing Reproductive Justice” (designed by FLUFFFF Studio, 2024), and has been recently published as a chapter in Public Interiority: Exploring Interiors in the Public Realm (edited by Liz Teston, Routledge, 2025). Her membership in the C21 Collaboratory enriches this work through cross-disciplinary collaboration and programming with Milwaukee-based community partners.

Maria Novotny (she/her) is Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She works in the area of reproductive advocacy and rhetoric, with a particular infertility and recurrent reproductive loss. Her co-edited collection Infertilities, A Curation (Wayne State University Press, 2023) portrays the ranging experiences of infertility in art and writing. She has published on the role of digital privacy and its impact on reproductive healthcare in Technical Communication Quarterly and Peitho. Other publications discussing rhetorics of reproductive justice have featured in Communication Design Quarterly, Rhetoric Review, Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, and Present Tense, and in several edited collections. She also co-edited the special issue “Rhetorics of Reproductive Justice in Public and Civic Contexts,” published in the open-access journal Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric. She also is the Co-Director for The ART of Infertility, which is an arts-based infertility storytelling project and in 2018 was recognized by RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association for her innovative approach to infertility advocacy via the arts and storytelling.

Teresa Ortiz (she/her) is a PhD candidate in Community and Behavioral Health Promotion at the Zilber College of Public Health at UW-Milwaukee. Her doctoral research examines law enforcement violence as experienced by Latine women in Southeast Wisconsin and its broader public health impact. Teresa has been a public health practitioner for 20 years, serving at the national, state, and local level, including within the field of reproductive and maternal health. Believing that public health is a social justice issue, she is committed to working in solidarity with those engaged in the work of dismantling the systems and institutions that create and sustain health inequities and social injustices.

Kristiana Perleberg (she/her) is a PhD candidate at UW-Milwaukee in the Public Rhetorics and Community Engagement program. She considers herself to be a critical-creative scholar, meaning she collaborates and writes with folks largely outside of academia in nontraditional ways. While her previous educational background and professional career have been rooted in Technical and Professional Communication, her doctoral research is focused on reproductive injustices and issues of access in Milwaukee. As the field of technical communication continues to emphasize social justice and activism in new ways, she hopes to continue to be a part of this conversation that prioritizes historically marginalized and silenced voices and language practices. She has been published in Writers: Craft & Context and has presented at several national conferences.

Olivia Sarkis (she/hers) is a gradutate student of both Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her previous educational background was a Bachelor’s in Theatre Design & Technology from Illinois Wesleyan University, where she developed an awareness for spatial dynamics and storytelling through visual design. This academic shift reflects her desire to explore the influence of physical spaces on social structures, particularly focusing on reproductive and food justice. Her interest in reproductive justice stems from a belief that access to healthcare and bodily autonomy is deeply connected to one’s physical environment. She is committed to exploring how urban planning can address disparities in access to essential services, which ultimately foster more just and equitable communities.

M. Estrella Sotomayor (she/her/ella) is a Senior Teaching Faculty in the Department of World Languages and Culture at UWM. She developed the Spanish for Health Professionals Certificate and teaches courses in language, culture, and those related to the certificate. Dr. Sotomayor earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Multidisciplinary Studies with a concentration in History and Women’s and Gender Studies. Her research centers on reproductive rights in Latin America, with a particular focus on mass sterilizations and reproductive violence in Puerto Rico. Since 2018, she has been a member and Chair of the Women of Color and Poorman Award Committees, which honor women of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and their allies for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus and in the community. Most recently, Dr. Sotomayor collaborated with the UW-Milwaukee School of Nursing to create a pilot program where students practice Spanish language skills and develop their diversity, equity, and inclusion competencies through activities in the Simulation Lab. She was a fellow at the Center for 21st Century Studies during the 2023-2024 academic year and a fellow in Global Studies in 2024-2025 while participating in the Mosaic Leadership Academy.