About us - the people and partners behind Contragestive Time.
About us - the people and partners behind Contragestive Time.
Research Team
Research Team
Research Team
Lisa Baraitser, Principal Investigator
Orcid ID: 0000-0001-6209-7838
Orcid ID: 0000-0001-6209-7838
I am Professor of Psychosocial Theory at Birkbeck, and my work sits between social theory, psychoanalysis, and gender and sexuality studies. My research concerns the temporal, ethical and affective dimensions of care. From 2017-2023 I was co-Principal Investigator on Waiting Times, a Wellcome Trust collaborative award (£1.2 million), leading a team of 10 researchers to investigate the meanings of waiting in, and for healthcare. Waiting Times developed a critical, historical, and culturally contextualised understanding of waiting in contemporary life in order to change academic and public understandings of what ‘timely’ care means.
I am Professor of Psychosocial Theory at Birkbeck, and my work sits between social theory, psychoanalysis, and gender and sexuality studies. My research concerns the temporal, ethical and affective dimensions of care. From 2017-2023 I was co-Principal Investigator on Waiting Times, a Wellcome Trust collaborative award (£1.2 million), leading a team of 10 researchers to investigate the meanings of waiting in, and for healthcare. Waiting Times developed a critical, historical, and culturally contextualised understanding of waiting in contemporary life in order to change academic and public understandings of what ‘timely’ care means.
My key works include Maternal Encounters: The Ethics of Interruption (Routledge, 2009, joint-winner of the Feminist and Women's Studies Association Book Prize); Enduring Time (Bloomsbury, 2017), and the co-authored book, Waiting Times: Crisis, Chronicity and Care (Bloomsbury, 2026).
My key works include Maternal Encounters: The Ethics of Interruption (Routledge, 2009, joint-winner of the Feminist and Women's Studies Association Book Prize); Enduring Time (Bloomsbury, 2017), and the co-authored book, Waiting Times: Crisis, Chronicity and Care (Bloomsbury, 2026).
I am founder of the Birkbeck Research Centre MaMSIE (Mapping Maternal Subjectivities, Identities and Ethics). From 2007-2023 MaMSIE provided a dynamic interactive online hub that collated research and aesthetic work on motherhood, and organized and hosted scholarly events. It continues to publish the online journal, Studies in the Maternal which I co-edit. I am on the editorial board of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalysis, Culture, Society, and a Member of the British Psychoanalytical Society.
I am founder of the Birkbeck Research Centre MaMSIE (Mapping Maternal Subjectivities, Identities and Ethics). From 2007-2023 MaMSIE provided a dynamic interactive online hub that collated research and aesthetic work on motherhood, and organized and hosted scholarly events. It continues to publish the online journal, Studies in the Maternal which I co-edit. I am on the editorial board of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalysis, Culture, Society, and a Member of the British Psychoanalytical Society.
Paula Baraitser, Co-Investigator
I am an academic and clinician (NHS consultant in sexual health at Kings College Hospital) with specialist training in public health and sexual and reproductive health. I have 20 years experience of research and innovation in these fields in the UK, Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa. During this time I developed the first digital contraceptive/STI testing and treatment services in England, Ireland, Ghana, Kenya and Germany and served as medical advisor to the UK National Chlamydia Screening Programme. I am currently technical lead for ‘IRIS’, hosted by Oxford Policy Management which provides responsive research and evaluation services for the Gates Foundation including a 4 year evaluation of contraceptive services in pharmacies in West Africa. My Health Foundation Improvement Science Fellowship focused on methodologies to maximise learning from rapid and iterative evaluations of pilot health services and my research is pragmatic, timely and methodologically diverse. I have held grants from the Big Lottery Fund, Guys and St Thomas’ Charity, The Wellcome Trust, NIHR, Research for the Patient Benefit, The Health Foundation and the Health Technology Assessment Agency. I have published over 80 papers, using both traditional and innovative research methods in peer reviewed journals across clinical medicine, improvement science, global health and social science.
I am an academic and clinician (NHS consultant in sexual health at Kings College Hospital) with specialist training in public health and sexual and reproductive health. I have 20 years experience of research and innovation in these fields in the UK, Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa. During this time I developed the first digital contraceptive/STI testing and treatment services in England, Ireland, Ghana, Kenya and Germany and served as medical advisor to the UK National Chlamydia Screening Programme. I am currently technical lead for ‘IRIS’, hosted by Oxford Policy Management which provides responsive research and evaluation services for the Gates Foundation including a 4 year evaluation of contraceptive services in pharmacies in West Africa. My Health Foundation Improvement Science Fellowship focused on methodologies to maximise learning from rapid and iterative evaluations of pilot health services and my research is pragmatic, timely and methodologically diverse. I have held grants from the Big Lottery Fund, Guys and St Thomas’ Charity, The Wellcome Trust, NIHR, Research for the Patient Benefit, The Health Foundation and the Health Technology Assessment Agency. I have published over 80 papers, using both traditional and innovative research methods in peer reviewed journals across clinical medicine, improvement science, global health and social science.
Elena Caruso, Post-Doctoral Researcher
Orcid ID: 0000-0002-8133-3821
Orcid ID: 0000-0002-8133-3821
I am a law researcher specialised in human reproduction. I am a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol Law School and a Fellow of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law’s International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program. As a member of the CT Project, I am working on the legal history of contragestives. Simultaneously, I am finalising my first monograph, Becoming Legal (under contract with Cambridge University Press), which focuses on the feminist movement and the legalisation of abortion in 1970s Italy.
I am a law researcher specialised in human reproduction. I am a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol Law School and a Fellow of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law’s International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program. As a member of the CT Project, I am working on the legal history of contragestives. Simultaneously, I am finalising my first monograph, Becoming Legal (under contract with Cambridge University Press), which focuses on the feminist movement and the legalisation of abortion in 1970s Italy.
Previously, I worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Waterloo Department of Political Science, where I developed my solo project on self-managed abortion and the law (2023–2025). I have held or will hold visiting positions at the Brocher Foundation (forthcoming), the University of Granada’s Faculty of Medicine, the University of Bristol Law School, the European University Institute’s Law Department, the University of Technology Sydney’s Faculty of Law, Melbourne Law School, Osgoode Hall Law School, Cardiff School of Law and Politics, and the University of Bonn Law School.
Previously, I worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Waterloo Department of Political Science, where I developed my solo project on self-managed abortion and the law (2023–2025). I have held or will hold visiting positions at the Brocher Foundation (forthcoming), the University of Granada’s Faculty of Medicine, the University of Bristol Law School, the European University Institute’s Law Department, the University of Technology Sydney’s Faculty of Law, Melbourne Law School, Osgoode Hall Law School, Cardiff School of Law and Politics, and the University of Bonn Law School.
My research has been published in leading academic journals in Italian and English. For my article ‘How did you get in there and make the law work?’, I received the Social & Legal Studies Editors’ Choice Award (2026).
My research has been published in leading academic journals in Italian and English. For my article ‘How did you get in there and make the law work?’, I received the Social & Legal Studies Editors’ Choice Award (2026).
I obtained a PhD from Kent Law School in July 2023, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Kent Law School. I hold an MA in Law from the University of Catania with the highest grade, and an LLM in International Law from the University of Kent with distinction. I was awarded the ‘Head of School Prize for Academic Excellence’ from the University of Kent, and my name was included in the list of the best law students at Catania Law School.
I obtained a PhD from Kent Law School in July 2023, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Kent Law School. I hold an MA in Law from the University of Catania with the highest grade, and an LLM in International Law from the University of Kent with distinction. I was awarded the ‘Head of School Prize for Academic Excellence’ from the University of Kent, and my name was included in the list of the best law students at Catania Law School.
Holly Isard, Post-Doctoral Researcher
I am an interdisciplinary early career researcher working on the politics of reproduction. Through historical and contemporary case studies, my work uses social reproduction theory and feminist philosophy to rethink concepts of pregnancy and conception, with a particular focus on reproductive technologies, visual culture, and how both have reshaped our understandings of reproduction in relation to gender and race. I completed my PhD at the University of West London in January 2025, funded by the Wellcome Trust. My thesis was a philosophical cross-historical exploration of ‘gestational labour’, the idea that under capitalism pregnancy might be considered a form of work. Alongside my research, I run community and public engagement workshops where visual and archival material acts as a springboard for political education. As the Engaged Research Fellow on Contragestive Time, my role draws on this work to support creative methodologies across the project, both within our team and for the publics we engage across its different strands.
I am an interdisciplinary early career researcher working on the politics of reproduction. Through historical and contemporary case studies, my work uses social reproduction theory and feminist philosophy to rethink concepts of pregnancy and conception, with a particular focus on reproductive technologies, visual culture, and how both have reshaped our understandings of reproduction in relation to gender and race. I completed my PhD at the University of West London in January 2025, funded by the Wellcome Trust. My thesis was a philosophical cross-historical exploration of ‘gestational labour’, the idea that under capitalism pregnancy might be considered a form of work. Alongside my research, I run community and public engagement workshops where visual and archival material acts as a springboard for political education. As the Engaged Research Fellow on Contragestive Time, my role draws on this work to support creative methodologies across the project, both within our team and for the publics we engage across its different strands.
Patricia Lohr, Co-Investigator
Orcid ID: 0000-0003-1862-5730
Orcid ID: 0000-0003-1862-5730
I am the Director of Research and Innovation at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) and direct the BPAS Centre for Reproductive Research & Communication (CRRC). I trained in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center before completing a Fellowship in Family Planning and Contraceptive Research and a Master of Public Health degree at the University of Pittsburgh. I previously served as BPAS Medical Director from 2007 to 2024.
I am the Director of Research and Innovation at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) and direct the BPAS Centre for Reproductive Research & Communication (CRRC). I trained in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center before completing a Fellowship in Family Planning and Contraceptive Research and a Master of Public Health degree at the University of Pittsburgh. I previously served as BPAS Medical Director from 2007 to 2024.
Through the CRRC, I lead multidisciplinary research and evaluation programmes that strengthen the evidence base for abortion and reproductive healthcare, improve patient experience and support innovation in practice. I have contributed to national and international clinical guidance through the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH), World Health Organization, and Society of Family Planning. My current work includes leading the first James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership on abortion care research, helping to define future research priorities through collaboration among people with lived experience, healthcare professionals, carers, and supporters. I have also played a key role in developing abortion education and professional training in the UK and internationally. I am Associate Editor of BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health, Expert Advisor to NICE, Co-Chair of the British Society of Abortion Care Providers, and an Associate Member of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) Committee on Safe Abortion. I hold honorary academic appointments at University College London and Monash University. In recognition of my contributions to reproductive healthcare, research, and education, I was awarded Fellowship of the RCOG and Honorary Fellowship of the FSRH.
Through the CRRC, I lead multidisciplinary research and evaluation programmes that strengthen the evidence base for abortion and reproductive healthcare, improve patient experience and support innovation in practice. I have contributed to national and international clinical guidance through the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH), World Health Organization, and Society of Family Planning. My current work includes leading the first James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership on abortion care research, helping to define future research priorities through collaboration among people with lived experience, healthcare professionals, carers, and supporters. I have also played a key role in developing abortion education and professional training in the UK and internationally. I am Associate Editor of BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health, Expert Advisor to NICE, Co-Chair of the British Society of Abortion Care Providers, and an Associate Member of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) Committee on Safe Abortion. I hold honorary academic appointments at University College London and Monash University. In recognition of my contributions to reproductive healthcare, research, and education, I was awarded Fellowship of the RCOG and Honorary Fellowship of the FSRH.
Through my research and policy work, I am committed to advancing reproductive autonomy and ensuring that reproductive healthcare is informed by rigorous evidence and lived experience.
Through my research and policy work, I am committed to advancing reproductive autonomy and ensuring that reproductive healthcare is informed by rigorous evidence and lived experience.
Rhiana Mills, Research Assistant
Orcid ID: 0000-0002-4268-0257
Orcid ID: 0000-0002-4268-0257
I am a Research Assistant and PhD student working on an ethnography of the development of a contragestive technology. I have a BSc in Anthropology from UCL and an MSc in Reproductive and Sexual Health Research from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. I have several years' experience working in reproductive and sexual health (SRH) research across the UK and in global health settings. Through my work I have engaged with digital anthropology and the use of chatbots for SRH care, healthcare spaces and meaning making practices in pharmacies, and the design of digital SRH services that alter the time and space of healthcare interactions. I have also published on the inclusion of pleasure in SRH programming and have spoken at the WHO on the importance of a pleasure positive approach. I am currently undertaking a PhD in Anthropology at the University of Sussex. My PhD follows the development of a contragestive technology from consultation processes, through regulatory approval, and into a feasibility trial. Drawing on science and technology studies (STS) and the anthropology of pharmaceuticals, I examine clinical knowledge in the process of being made and the crafting of a contragestive as a social object.
I am a Research Assistant and PhD student working on an ethnography of the development of a contragestive technology. I have a BSc in Anthropology from UCL and an MSc in Reproductive and Sexual Health Research from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. I have several years' experience working in reproductive and sexual health (SRH) research across the UK and in global health settings. Through my work I have engaged with digital anthropology and the use of chatbots for SRH care, healthcare spaces and meaning making practices in pharmacies, and the design of digital SRH services that alter the time and space of healthcare interactions. I have also published on the inclusion of pleasure in SRH programming and have spoken at the WHO on the importance of a pleasure positive approach. I am currently undertaking a PhD in Anthropology at the University of Sussex. My PhD follows the development of a contragestive technology from consultation processes, through regulatory approval, and into a feasibility trial. Drawing on science and technology studies (STS) and the anthropology of pharmaceuticals, I examine clinical knowledge in the process of being made and the crafting of a contragestive as a social object.
Sarah Milton, Co-Investigator
Orcid ID: 0000-0003-2626-2976
Orcid ID: 0000-0003-2626-2976
I am a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, Kings College London, and have an interdisciplinary background in sociology, medical anthropology and public health. My research focuses on the everyday experience of intersectional inequalities within healthcare and social spaces, particularly attentive to gender, racialisation and life transitions such as maternity and midlife. I specialise in ethnographic, sensory and life history methodologies.
I am a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, Kings College London, and have an interdisciplinary background in sociology, medical anthropology and public health. My research focuses on the everyday experience of intersectional inequalities within healthcare and social spaces, particularly attentive to gender, racialisation and life transitions such as maternity and midlife. I specialise in ethnographic, sensory and life history methodologies.
My work has contributed to the sociology of intimacy, gender and sexuality, ageing studies and feminist public health. I published my book, Ageing & New Intimacies: gender, sexuality and temporality in an English salsa scene, in 2024 with Manchester University Press, 2024. I am the Editor of Racism by Context: Gender, the Body & Relationships at Oxford University Press.
My work has contributed to the sociology of intimacy, gender and sexuality, ageing studies and feminist public health. I published my book, Ageing & New Intimacies: gender, sexuality and temporality in an English salsa scene, in 2024 with Manchester University Press, 2024. I am the Editor of Racism by Context: Gender, the Body & Relationships at Oxford University Press.
Alongside collaborating on the Contragestive Time project, I am currently the Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded Reproductive Borders and Bordering Reproduction project. This interdisciplinary team seeks to provide practical, policy and academic insights into the intersections of medical, legal, and racial discrimination that women face at different points of the reproductive lifecourse in England, as well as exploring their creative agencies and those of medical professionals in negotiating these structures.
Alongside collaborating on the Contragestive Time project, I am currently the Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded Reproductive Borders and Bordering Reproduction project. This interdisciplinary team seeks to provide practical, policy and academic insights into the intersections of medical, legal, and racial discrimination that women face at different points of the reproductive lifecourse in England, as well as exploring their creative agencies and those of medical professionals in negotiating these structures.
Stella Sandford, Co-Investigator
Orcid ID: 0000-0002-7490-2977
Orcid ID: 0000-0002-7490-2977
I am Professor of Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University where I lead the Transdisciplinary Philosophy Research Group. My research focuses on philosophies of sex and gender; plant philosophy; critical philosophy of race; philosophy and psychoanalytical theory; philosophy of natural history; feminist philosophy and theory. My most recent book is Vegetal Sex: Philosophy of Plants (Bloomsbury, 2023). I co-lead Work Package 3 in the ‘Contragestive Time’ project. My main focus is on the relationship between the biological, philosophical and legal histories of the concepts of reproductive biology and their disruption by the concept of contragestion. My research approach is interdisciplinary, which means that it draws on the methods and knowledge of more than one discipline with the aim of making original philosophical interventions into issues of contemporary concern. I have investigated and published on the challenges of interdisciplinarity and the concept of transdisciplinarity, both of which are central to the ‘Contragestive Time’ project.
I am Professor of Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University where I lead the Transdisciplinary Philosophy Research Group. My research focuses on philosophies of sex and gender; plant philosophy; critical philosophy of race; philosophy and psychoanalytical theory; philosophy of natural history; feminist philosophy and theory. My most recent book is Vegetal Sex: Philosophy of Plants (Bloomsbury, 2023). I co-lead Work Package 3 in the ‘Contragestive Time’ project. My main focus is on the relationship between the biological, philosophical and legal histories of the concepts of reproductive biology and their disruption by the concept of contragestion. My research approach is interdisciplinary, which means that it draws on the methods and knowledge of more than one discipline with the aim of making original philosophical interventions into issues of contemporary concern. I have investigated and published on the challenges of interdisciplinarity and the concept of transdisciplinarity, both of which are central to the ‘Contragestive Time’ project.
Sally Sheldon, Co-Investigator
Orcid ID: 0000-0001-5472-9655
Orcid ID: 0000-0001-5472-9655
I am Professor of Law at the University of Bristol, having previously taught at the Universities of Keele and Kent. My research interests are primarily in health care law and ethics and socio-legal studies, with a particular focus on abortion law. Recent projects include ‘How Can a State Control Swallowing?’ Medical Abortion and the Law, and ‘The Abortion Act (1967): a Biography’, which resulted in a book of the same name. The book argued for the need for socio-legal studies to learn from historical study, pioneering a biographical approach to the study of statute law. I was also a member of the team for The SACHA Study - Shaping Abortion for Change project.
I am Professor of Law at the University of Bristol, having previously taught at the Universities of Keele and Kent. My research interests are primarily in health care law and ethics and socio-legal studies, with a particular focus on abortion law. Recent projects include ‘How Can a State Control Swallowing?’ Medical Abortion and the Law, and ‘The Abortion Act (1967): a Biography’, which resulted in a book of the same name. The book argued for the need for socio-legal studies to learn from historical study, pioneering a biographical approach to the study of statute law. I was also a member of the team for The SACHA Study - Shaping Abortion for Change project.
I am an editor of Cambridge University Press’s groundbreaking Law in Context book series and, with Kenneth Armstrong, am currently developing a new Elements of Legislation series that will sit within it. I am an editor of the journal, Social & Legal Studies. Further details of my publications can be found here.
I am an editor of Cambridge University Press’s groundbreaking Law in Context book series and, with Kenneth Armstrong, am currently developing a new Elements of Legislation series that will sit within it. I am an editor of the journal, Social & Legal Studies. Further details of my publications can be found here.
Maya Unnithan, Co-Investigator
Orcid ID: 0000-0002-7649-7282
Orcid ID: 0000-0002-7649-7282
I am a Professor of Social and Medical Anthropology, School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, and the Director of the Centre for Cultures of Reproduction, Technologies & Health (CORTH). My work bridges reproduction, global health, international development and human rights. In my research I foreground how gender, power and rights intersect in reproductive lives, and how communities navigate the ethical and political terrain of claiming autonomy over their bodies and futures. I have long term fieldwork expertise in India and more recently in the UK, on fertility control, contraception and abortion (including selective abortion). My last book ‘Fertility, Health and Reproductive Politics’ was published by Routledge in 2019. I currently hold a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for a project on Reproductive Freedom and Ethics which explores a situated and discursive re-visioning of the discourse on gender, rights and reproductive justice, in a global, postcolonial world.
I am a Professor of Social and Medical Anthropology, School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, and the Director of the Centre for Cultures of Reproduction, Technologies & Health (CORTH). My work bridges reproduction, global health, international development and human rights. In my research I foreground how gender, power and rights intersect in reproductive lives, and how communities navigate the ethical and political terrain of claiming autonomy over their bodies and futures. I have long term fieldwork expertise in India and more recently in the UK, on fertility control, contraception and abortion (including selective abortion). My last book ‘Fertility, Health and Reproductive Politics’ was published by Routledge in 2019. I currently hold a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for a project on Reproductive Freedom and Ethics which explores a situated and discursive re-visioning of the discourse on gender, rights and reproductive justice, in a global, postcolonial world.
To read more about my work please see:
To read more about my work please see:
Advisory board
Professor Emily Jackson OBE (Law, London School of Economics (Chair)),
Dr. Isobel Davies (Research Leader in Collections and Cultures, Natural History Museum),
Alison Edelman (Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine),
Lisa Hallgarten (Head of Policy & Public Affairs, Brook),
Professor Nick Hopwood (History of Science and Medicine, University of Cambridge),
Dr. Natalie Kapp (Chief Medical Advisor, International Planned Parenthood Federation).
Susanne Lettow (Institut für Philosophie and Area Director for Research and Research Development, Freie Universität Berlin).
Dr. Jesse Olszynko-Gryn (Laboratory for Oral History and Experimental Media, Max Planck Institute),
Petra Procter (Senior Programme Manager, Concept Foundation),
Professor Laura Salisbury (Medical Humanities, University of Exeter),
Sam Yusef (Chair, Board of Trustees, Reproductive Justice Initiative),
experts-by-experience DRAFT summary document for advisory board 2nd Feb 2026 from Brook Youth Research Forum and the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Women’s Voices Involvement Pane
