Heather McMullen

Dr Heather McMullen

Small Group Project 2021-22

In/Fertile Environments: Making Kin in a Time of Crisis

This project engages with the most pressing problem of our time: the environmental crisis. Drawing on the environmental reproductive justice framework, we ask what kinds of transformations in kinship and reproduction, and what future imaginaries of relationality are thinkable and possible, in the context of environmental crisis. We approach this problem through a methodology that is based in a critique of the political, economic and social ideologies that have created this crisis, whilst also seeking to highlight creative and constructive approaches to the very real existential threats it poses to all life. Following the principles of reproductive justice and decolonial scholarship, we approach intersections between reproduction and the environment through people’s lived experiences and grassroots activism.

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Areas of interest

Bodily Autonomy Stigma Sexual Reproduction Reproductive Rights Public Health Youth Colonial Violence Fertility

Cohort

FG7

Biography

Dr Heather McMullen is a Senior Lecturer in the Global Public Health Unit, Centre for Public Health and Policy, Wolfson Institute of Population Health at Queen Mary University of London, where she leads the Gender, Sexuality and Health strand of the MSc in Global Public Health. Her work engages themes of bodily autonomy, stigma, and complexity, with a commitment to advancing visibility, social justice, and engagement with difficult topics. Much of her research to date has focused on sexual and reproductive rights and health (SRHR) and reproductive justice, encompassing projects on HIV testing, young parenthood, access to contraception, youth sexual health, and the intersection of climate change and SRHR. Alongside her academic career, she has held roles with the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the World Health Organisation, and other organisations working in this field.

Biographical details correct as of 24.04.26