Dr Rebecca Ogden, School of Culture and Languages, has received research funding for her project ‘Adolescent Parenthoods and Culture in Latin America’.
This Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project investigates adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) and young parenthood in Mexico, Cuba and Colombia, three countries characterised by both high levels of teenage pregnancy and high levels of investments in its prevention. Teenage pregnancy is increasing in many Latin American countries, with significant negative social, economic, and health-related consequences. Young mothers have often the victims of sexual violence and are also vulnerable to forms of obstetric violence. Teenage parenthood obstructs access to education, hinders social mobility and entrenches poverty, making teen parents and their babies more vulnerable to disease. Such outcomes are worse still in contexts marked by gendered violence, marginalisation and precarity. Despite broader advances in maternal health, in Mexico, Cuba and Colombia, adolescent pregnancy remains high, especially within the local settings (Morelos, Granma, Chocó) that this project foregrounds.
“The project asks three intersecting questions: (i) how does cultural production reflect and regulate understandings of ASRH and young parenthood? (ii) how do cultural representations work with or against ASRH policy and initiatives by governments and NGOs? (iii) how do such interventions correspond to the needs and lived realities of adolescents, especially young parents?” says Rebecca, “The research seeks to expand knowledge in terms of how ASRH is shaped by culture, and positively impact future policy and initiatives, enhance public awareness of related issues, and have a social impact on young people and their communities. To foster an interdisciplinary, comparative and collaborative approach to these questions, the project will also bring the three contexts in dialogue through the development of an international research network. The network directly includes local and national policymakers, regional development actors, NGOs, arts organisations, and media outlets in regular symposia. Findings will be shared via conference presentations, a website, a podcast episode, a policy briefing document, a methodological toolkit, blog posts, and academic publications.”
Congratulations to Rebecca on this achievement.