Dr R. Sánchez-Rivera

Dr R. Sánchez-Rivera

LSE Fellow in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies

Department of Gender Studies

Room No
PAN.10.01G
Languages
English, Spanish
Key Expertise
Science, Tech, Racism, Coloniality, Reproductive Justice, Queer Studies

About me

My research bridges gender studies, history of science and medicine and sociological theory, offering a diverse array of transnational perspectives on the critical studies of eugenics and ‘race’ science.

My book titled “Slippery Eugenics: An Introduction to the Critical Studies of Race, Gender and Coloniality” (Sage, 2024) highlights the global interconnectedness of eugenic ideas and practices historically, as well as how the legacies and continuations of eugenics are manifested through state policies and individual self-regulation. This book illustrates how internalized eugenic practices and ideas “slip” into contemporary understandings of gender, sexuality, class, disability, and racialization.

My second book project titled “An Exploration of Mexican Eugenics: Racism and the Reproduction of the Nation” which will be published in 2026, as part of the University of Iowa Press ‘Reproductive Justice’ series. This book explores the historical development of eugenic discourse and practices in Mexico from the 19th century to the present-day, providing the tools to recognize the continuation of eugenic practices and ideas in everyday life, decades after the world shunned the ‘science’ of eugenics.

I have also published, both in Spanish and English, in a range of leading academic journals, including in the Journal of Historical Sociology, Sociology of Health and Illness, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Sociology, and Caribbean Studies.

Expertise Details

Science; Tech; Racism; Coloniality; Reproductive Justice; Queer Studies

PhD Supervision

Ange La Furcia, University of Cambridge (2025)

Marina S. Hernandez, State University of New York (SUNY)-Albany

Publications

Books

  •  2024 Slippery Eugenics: An Introduction to the Critical Studies of Race, Gender and Coloniality, (SAGE Publishing)

 Under Contract and Submitted Manuscripts

  •  2026 An Exploration of Mexican Eugenics: Racism and the Reproduction of the Nation (University of Iowa Press- for Locating Reproductive Justice: Global and Regional Perspectives)

Peer-reviewed Publications

  • 2025 Sánchez-Rivera, R. “Building a ‘Fitter’Future: Eugenics, Tech Capitalism, and the Politics of Existential Risk”, Oxford Intersections (Forthcoming)
  • 2025 Sánchez-Rivera, R., “The Beginnings of Feeblemindedness and its Ties to Eugenics in Mexico”, Cold Spring Harbor: Perspectives in Biology (Forthcoming)
  • 2025 Sánchez-Rivera, R. “Mexican Eugenics and Disability After the Second Half of the 20th Century”, Legados de la Eugenesia en México y las Americas (Forthcoming)
  • 2024 Sánchez-Rivera, R. & Mackenzie, S. Queering Covid: A Synergistic Approach to Theorizing Pandemic Inequalities. Sociology (DOI:10.1177/00380385241275856)
  • 2023 Sánchez-Rivera, R; Peña, Glorimarie. Internalized Eugenics and Hygienic Codes in Puerto Rican Trap and Reggaetón, Caribbean Studies (DOI: 10.1353/crb.2023.a905515)
  • 2023 Sánchez-Rivera, R; From Preventive Eugenics to Slippery Eugenics: Contemporary Sterilizations Targeted to Indigenous Peoples in Mexico, Sociology of Health & Illness (DOI: 10.1111/1467-9566.13556)
  • 2022 Sánchez-Rivera, R; Coloniality and Reproductive Coercion in Puerto Rico in Light of Roe v. Wade, Fieldsights: Society for Cultural Anthropology
  • 2022 Sánchez-Rivera, R. & Ogden, R. Introduction: The Cultural Politics of Reproduction in Latin America, Bulletin of Latin American Research (DOI: 10.1111/blar.13357)
  • 2022 Sánchez-Rivera, R; Dystopian Eugenics and Mestizo Futurisms in Eduardo Urzaiz’s Eugenia, Bulletin of Latin American Research (DOI: 10.1111/blar.13395)
  • 2021 Sánchez-Rivera, R; The Making of La Gran Familia Mexicana: Eugenics, Gender, and Sexuality in Mexico, Journal of Historical Sociology, Issue 1 (DOI: 10.1111/johs.12308) 
  • 2020 Sánchez-Rivera, R; The Legacies of “Race” Science, Anti-Chinese Racism, and COVID-19 in Sánchez-Rivera, R; Mexico, Bulletin of Latin American Research, 39 (S1), 35-38 (DOI: 10.1111/blar.13173)
  • 2020 Sánchez-Rivera, R; “Shilling for US Empire in Puerto Rico”: The Legacies of Scientific Racism in Economic Science, The Abusable Past at the Radical History Review.
  • 2020 Sánchez-Rivera, R; Reggaetón, Trap y Masculinidades: Dinámicas sociales a ritmo del perreo combativo en Puerto Rico (Reggaetón, Spanish Trap, and Masculinities in Puerto Rico), Taller de letras in association with Tintas, Special Issue: Adiós a las Armas: Despatriarcar a América desde la cultura: 42-55
  • 2017 Sánchez-Rivera, R; Imágenes y representaciones de control de natalidad, esterilización y anticonceptivos en la prensa puertorriqueña: El Mundo, El Imparcial y Claridad de 1943 a 1974. (Images and Representations of Population Control, Sterilization Procedures and Contraceptives in the Puerto Rican Press), De Raíz Diversa-Revista Especializada en Estudios Latinoamericanos Vol.4, No.7: 101-36.

Book Chapters

  • 2026 Sánchez-Rivera, R. Reproductive Justice and Eugenics in the Anthropocene, In: How Do We Think About Population in the Anthropocene, Prickly Paradigm Press (Chicago, US), Eds. Alison Bashford & David Duncan (Forthcoming)
  • 2025 Sánchez-Rivera, R & Tanna, Natasha. Counterarchiving Coloniality in the Americas: Rita Indiana’s ‘After School’, Legenda, Eds: Annie Ring and Lucy Bollington
  • 2025 Sánchez-Rivera, R; Eugenics and Gender: A Transnational Approach in International Encyclopaedia of Politics and Gender, Sage Publishing
  • 2024 Sánchez-Rivera, R; Eugenics and the “Coloniality of Science in ‘The Most Beautiful Indian’ Contest: Eugenics, Gender and Race in Post-Revolutionary Mexico”. Routledge Handbook Gender and Reproduction. Eds. Rodante Van Del Waal, Barbara Katz Rothman & Christie Sillo
  • 2024 Sánchez-Rivera, R; “Whatever…it is Only a Joke?!”: Exploring Memes, Racialization, and Discrimination in Puerto Rico during Hurricanes, Earthquakes, and COVID-19 in Internet, Humor, and Nation in Latin/x America, Florida University Press, Eds. Juan Poblete and Hector D. Fernandez.
  • 2019 Sánchez-Rivera, R; Posicionalidades: Queerness y Eugenesia en Latinoamérica (Positionalities: Queerness and Eugenics in Latin America) in Libro de Actas: Del Otro Lao’, Editorial Educación Emergente (EEE), Eds. Lissette Rolón and Beatriz Lenin Figueroa.

Academic Publications

  • 2022 Sánchez-Rivera, R; “Los legados de la eugenesia en la construcción de la belleza en Latinoamérica: Una perspectiva interseccional”, Piel Alterna: Revista Política Poética
  • 2022 Murillo et al. “Interrogating Our White Supremacist Present: A Roundtable on Global Histories of Racial Supremacy and Reproductive Control”, NOTCHES: (re)marks on the history of sexuality
  • 2021 Sánchez-Rivera, R. & O’ Shaughnessy A. “Disability, Decoloniality, and Displacement: Exploring Reproductive (In)Justices with the Reproductive Justice Research Network”:ReproBlog
  • 2021 O’Shaughnessy A. & Sánchez-Rivera, R. “An Introduction to the Reproductive Justice Research Network”: ReproBlog
  • 2021 Ogden, R. & Sánchez-Rivera, R. “Exploring reproductive politics, health, and justice in Latin America”: the ‘Cuerpa Politica’ podcast, Institute of Latin American Studies Blog

Publications

  • 2018 Sánchez-Rivera, R; Human Rights Violations and the Chalchihuitán-Chenalhó Land Dispute, Mexico|Politics and Security Section, Latin American News, 105-11
  • 2017 Sánchez-Rivera, R; The Structural Dynamics and Limitations of the New Policy on Disappearances, Mexico|Politics and Security Section, Latin American News, 57-62

Book Reviews

  • 2025 Sánchez-Rivera, R. Review of “Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care and Race in the US-Mexico Borderlands”, Population and Development Review (Commissioned)
  • 2025 Sánchez-Rivera, R; Review of “Making Gaybies: Queer Reproduction and Multiracial Feeling”, New Genetics & Society (Commissioned)
  • 2024 Sánchez-Rivera, R; Review of “Sacred Bundles Unborn”, Women’s History Review. DOI: 10.1080/09612025.2024.2419726
  • 2023 Sánchez-Rivera, R; Review of ‘White Philanthropy: Carnegie Corporation’s An American Dilemma and the Making of a White World Order”, Estudios Sociológicos (ColMex)
  • 2022 Sánchez-Rivera, R; Review of ‘The Nigrescent Beyond: Mexico, the United States and the Psychic Vanishing of Blackness’, Afro-Hispanic Review
  • 2021 Sánchez-Rivera, R; Review of ‘Parenting Empires: Class, Whiteness, and the Moral Economy of Privilege in Latin America’, Patterns of Prejudice 10.1080/0031322X.2021.1890363