Events

When:
Reception: 12:15-12:45p.m in the Kadish Library
Program: 12:45 – 2:00 p.m. in the Philip Selznick Seminar Room

Speaker:
Kelly Fong
Assistant Professor of Sociology, UC Irvine

Where: In-Person at 2240 Piedmont Ave and Livestreamed via Zoom. See our website for accessibility details and registration. 

Cosponsored with the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice, the Center for Race and Gender, and the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice

Description:

It’s the knock on the door that many mothers fear: a visit from Child Protective Services (CPS), the state agency with the power to take their children away. Over the last half-century, these encounters have become an all-too-common way of trying to address family poverty and adversity. One in three children nationwide—and half of Black children—now encounter CPS during childhood. In Investigating Families, Kelley Fong provides an unprecedented look at the inner workings of CPS and the experiences of families pulled into its orbit. Drawing on firsthand observations of CPS investigations and hundreds of interviews with those involved, Fong traces the implications of invoking CPS as a “first responder” to family misfortune and hardship. She shows how relying on CPS—an entity fundamentally oriented around parental wrongdoing and empowered to separate families—organizes the response to adversity around surveilling, assessing, and correcting marginalized mothers. The agency’s far-reaching investigative apparatus undermines mothers’ sense of security and shapes how they marshal resources for their families, reinforcing existing inequalities. And even before CPS comes knocking, mothers feel vulnerable to a system that jeopardizes their parenthood. Countering the usual narratives of punitive villains and hapless victims, Fong’s unique, behind-the-scenes account tells a revealing story of how we try to protect children by threatening mothers—and points the way to a more productive path for families facing adversity.

Light refreshments will be provided.

When: Thursday, October 16, 2025, 12:50-2pm,

Where: Room 145

Panelists: Prof. Mallika Kaur (UC Berkeley Law), Erin Scott (Family Violence Law Center), Cynthia Gutierrez (Team Lily – UCSF)

Moderator: Arneta Rogers (CRRJ) 

Hosted by the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice and the Domestic Violence & Gender Based Violence Practicum  

Description:

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a time to elevate the experience and resilience of survivors. It is also a time to advocate for legal, policy, and cultural change that disrupts cycles of intimate partner violence and supports the safety, healing, and bodily autonomy of all impacted. Despite its widespread use as a form of gender-based violence, reproductive coercion remains under-discussed in both domestic violence and reproductive justice spaces. Homicide is the most frequent cause of death for pregnant and postpartum women, and over 30% of maternal injuries annually are reported IPV homicides. The post-Dobbs era of increased criminalization, surveillance, and reproductive violence by state actors has also likely emboldened, and in some instances facilitated, reproductive violence by individual actors. Please join us for a panel discussion with DV lawyers and reproductive justice advocates on meaningful opportunities to bridge the critical gap in advocacy and advance non-punitive solutions to intimate partner violence for vulnerable communities. 

Lunch provided with RSVP here.  

Please join us for the 3rd annual Collaborative Learning Experience on Reproductive Justice, co-sponsored by the UC Berkeley–UCSF Joint Medical Program (JMP), UC Berkeley Gender & Women’s Studies, the School of Social Welfare, and the Law Center on Reproductive Rights & Justice.  This learning event will bring together medical students, undergraduates, law students, social work students, and others for an invigorating day of transdisciplinary learning focused on reproductive justice.

When: Thursday, October 30, 9:00 AM–12:00 PM (coffee & networking at 8:30 AM)
Where: 1995 University Ave, Suite 300
Agenda:
• 9:00–10:00 Expert panel (setting the context)
• 10:15–11:15 Case discussions in small, transdisciplinary groups
• 11:15–12:00 Large-group discussion

RSVP:  RSVP using this form by 10/15!

RSVP NOW for the LAST of our 5-part Breaking Silos in Reproductive Justice teach-in, “We Got Us: Community Care Models to Disrupt Poverty Criminalization & Family Separation” on Tuesday, August 12th at 12:30pm PT. This series is hosted by CRRJ, Elephant Circle, If/When/How, & Movement for Family Power.

Systems of criminalization have long stolen the resources families need to be safe, and then criminalized us for lack of resources.  And for decades, racist myths like the “welfare queen” have been created to block government assistance for families and turn “assistance” into surveillance. This tactic continues today. 

But in the face of structural abandonment, community protects community. Join us to hear from abolition dreamers who are advancing reproductive justice by building models of community care and demanding reparation:

• Imani Worthy, Black Families Love and Unite (BLU)

• jasmine Sankofa, Movement for Family Power

• Khiara Bridges, UC Berkeley Law 

• Margaret Prescod, Global Women’s Strike

• Rena Karefa-Johnson, FWD.us

• Zara Raven, Philly Childcare Collective

RSVP NOW for part 4 of our 5-part Breaking Silos in Reproductive Justice Teach-In Series on Tuesday, July 15 at 12:30 PM, “Breaking Borders: Interconnections between Immigrant Justice, Family Policing Abolition, & Reproductive Justice.” This series is hosted by Elephant Circle, If/When/How, Movement for Family Power, and CRRJ.

The state’s targeting of, and violence against, immigrant communities is a daily reality, as is the resistance against it. As the fascist state continues to use family separation as a weapon, it is critical that we have a collective understanding of the inherent connections between family policing abolition, reproductive justice, and immigrant justice.

In this session, we will discuss how the immigration system is inherently a reproductive justice issue. Grounded in that understanding, we will explore community-led models of resistance that provide immediate protection against ICE surveillance, detention, and deportation, while advancing the long-term goal of border abolition.

Join our panelists to discuss our demands for a world that centers the bodily autonomy and liberation of all people: 

• Abraham Paulos, Black Alliance for Justice Immigration:BAJI
• Noran Elzarka, If/When/How 
• Silky Shah, Detention Watch 
• Zaena Zamora, Frontera Fund 

This is the second in our five-part Breaking Silos in Reproductive Justice: Continuing the Conversation Teach-in Series–convened by the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice at UC Berkeley Law, Elephant Circle, If/When/How, and Movement for Family Power.

This teach-in will explore the demonization, criminalization, and separation of birthing people and their babies as a core feature of the Drug War–which employed our healthcare system as a key tool of surveillance and punishment, especially for Black mamas. Join us to discuss family policing as a maternal health crisis and how you can help end the criminalization of mamas who use drugs with our panelists:  

Chanel Porchia-Albert, Ancient Song, Dinah Ortiz, National Survivors Union, Karen Thompson, Pregnancy Justice, Kimá Joy Taylor, Doing Right by Birth, Miriam Mack, Movement for Family Power

In Nov 2024, Center on Reproductive Rights & Justice at UC Berkeley Law, If/When/How, & Movement for Family Power convened the Breaking Silos in Reproductive Justice: Building Solidarity to End Family Policing symposium to interrogate the family policing system as a reproductive injustice.

Now, we are continuing the work with a virtual teach-in series in collaboration with our movement partner, Elephant Circle to deepen our understanding of the interconnected struggles within reproductive justice movements and family policing abolition in practice. We will focus on issues like pregnancy criminalization, the drug war, the deportation machine, trans liberation, and welfare rights.

Join us for the 1st virtual offering Abolishing the Family Policing System: A Reproductive Justice Imperative. While Reproductive Justice has always demanded a world where all people have a right to have children and parent those children in safe communities, the mainstream reproductive rights movement has historically failed to prioritize resisting family policing. To challenge these systems and win, we must advance the full vision of reproductive justice that demands an end to family policing.

Please join Professor Kaur to discuss the modern realities of lawyering against gendered violence with a panel of lawyers on the frontlines.

District Attorneys Sherry Boston and Laura Conover will discuss how prosecutors play a vital role in safeguarding reproductive healthcare access through their discretionary powers and policy decisions. The DAs will highlight their unique position to shape prosecutorial priorities, protect the rights of medical providers and patients, and ensure their offices remain focused on public safety and building community trust.

You are invited to Breaking Silos in Reproductive Justice: Building Solidarity to End Family Policing, a symposium hosted by the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice (CRRJ) at UC Berkeley Law, If/When/How: Lawyers for Reproductive Justice, and Movement for Family Power, and the Gender Journal.

WHEN: 9am – 5pm / Friday, November 15th (with a book sale and signing by Dorothy Roberts to follow from 5-6pm) 

FOOD: Breakfast will be available starting at 8am. Lunch will be available from 11:45 – 1pm. 

Please join us, Breaking Silos in Reproductive Justice: Building Solidarity to End Family Policing, a full day of panel discussions and critical conversations interrogating the family policing system–or the so-called “child welfare” system–as a site of reproductive punishment and control, particularly for Black, Latine, and Indigenous families, and other marginalized communities. We are thrilled to share that our keynote speaker will be Dorothy Roberts, thought leader, author, and professor–and our closing speaker will be Amanda Wallace, movement leader and founder of Operation Stop CPS. 

The post-Roe landscape has amplified the connection between attacks on reproductive autonomy and family integrity. More so than ever, people are being forced to remain pregnant and subsequently punished by the family police for raising children without the necessary support or resources. Through practices like test-and-report and mandated reporting, the family policing system also deters birthing people from seeking the reproductive health care they need. 

We are calling on advocates to unite in advancing a shared vision for reproductive justice that includes an end to family policing. 

Please join students, faculty and staff from the School of Law, the School of Social Welfare and the Joint Medical Program for a collaborative workshop focusing on how we can work across disciplines to address inequities in family policing. The unique discussion based seminar will be held on 10/31 from 9-12pm at the JMP Suite in the Golden Bear Center (1995 University Ave).

Please join the Zoom link here to join this panel discussion!