Reproductive Justice Roundtable: Loretta Ross & Dorothy Roberts

A roundtable conversation between Loretta Ross and Dr. Dorothy Roberts on the contemporary state of the reproductive justice framework. The two founding-contributor scholars discuss what the framework has built across the past three decades, where the structural work remains, and how the next-generation movement-and-scholarship infrastructure should develop.

The roundtable structure is a 90-minute event. The first 60 minutes is structured conversation between Loretta Ross and Dorothy Roberts, moderated by a senior facilitator from the Reproductive Justice Network membership. The conversation covers the historical framework-development work of the early-1990s reproductive-justice movement, the academic-scholarship work that has theorized the framework across the subsequent decades, and the specific contemporary policy and movement-organization work that builds on the framework. The final 30 minutes is facilitated Q&A from registered attendees, with questions submitted via the platform registration system in advance.

The conversation is rigorous and specifically grounded in the work the speakers have actually done. The conversation is not introductory; it assumes attendees have basic familiarity with the reproductive-justice framework and want a senior conversation that builds on that familiarity.

Who this is for: movement organizers, academic scholars, policy professionals, and advocates working in reproductive rights, reproductive justice, family law, child welfare, maternal health, and adjacent fields. The roundtable is specifically for attendees with established engagement with the field who would benefit from the senior-conversation format; introductory attendees would benefit from the Reproductive Justice Network's ongoing discussion threads first.

What attendees will leave with: a structured senior-conversation on the framework's contemporary state. Specific references to recent scholarship, movement work, and policy developments that the conversation surfaces. Continuing access to the Reproductive Justice Network for ongoing engagement.

Logistics: virtual via the platform's event infrastructure. 90-minute duration. Capacity 250 reflecting the broader interest in the conversation; registered count tracked at the platform-event-detail level. Recording available to registered attendees only and embargoed from broader sharing.

Pre-event prep: registered attendees receive a structured pre-event briefing document one week prior covering the framework-development history and the speakers' recent scholarly work. Attendees submit questions for the moderated Q&A segment at registration; the moderator curates the question set in advance of the session.

Post-event continuation: a follow-up thread within the Reproductive Justice Network for attendees to continue engagement. Individual mentor sessions with Loretta Ross and Dr. Dorothy Roberts are available through their mentor profiles for attendees with extended follow-up questions, with the caveat that the individual session pre-session brief requirements still apply.

Cost: free of ticket cost in keeping with the platform's broader reproductive-justice infrastructure policy. The platform's event infrastructure supports the coordination, the moderator engagement, and the Q&A curation.

This roundtable represents one of the platform's longest-running flagship event series. The conversation between Loretta Ross and Dorothy Roberts has occurred multiple times across the platform's events program, with each iteration engaging different specific aspects of the framework's contemporary state. The roundtable structure is replicable and future iterations are planned as the field continues to develop.

The platform's broader Reproductive Justice Network infrastructure supports this roundtable series. Adjacent events in the series include conversations with other senior reproductive-justice scholars and movement leaders, and the network's ongoing discussion threads run between the roundtable events to provide continuing community engagement with the framework.

The senior-scholar-conversation format brings together two of the most central figures in the reproductive-justice framework's development for a structured conversation that members of the broader field would not have access to in other contexts. The conversation produces specific outputs — references, scholarly connections, framework-application examples — that members carry into their own work.

Registration opens six weeks before the event date and typically reaches capacity within four weeks given the broad interest in the senior-scholar conversation. Cancellation policy follows the platform's standard event-cancellation framework.

Accessibility provisions include live captioning of the conversation and Q&A segments, recorded captions on the post-event recording, scheduled-pause-points in the discussion, and ASL interpretation available on request submitted at least two weeks before the event. The conversation transcript is made available to registered attendees following the event in addition to the recorded captions.

The roundtable format has evolved across iterations. Earlier iterations were single-speaker presentations; the current paired-conversation format reflects what the Reproductive Justice Network membership surfaced as most useful — a structured conversation between two senior founding-contributor scholars rather than a single-presenter format.

The roundtable is one component of the platform's broader Reproductive Justice Network infrastructure. Adjacent programming includes the network's monthly discussion threads, the quarterly virtual sessions with senior reproductive-justice movement leaders, the annual in-person convening, and individual mentor sessions with Loretta Ross, Dr. Dorothy Roberts, and other senior network members.

The roundtable series has produced sustained community engagement with the reproductive-justice framework across the iterations. Specific scholarly collaborations, movement-organization partnerships, and policy-advocacy initiatives have emerged from the conversations the roundtable has hosted across multiple iterations.

The platform's event registration confirmation includes a calendar invitation, the platform's video-conferencing access details, the structured pre-event briefing document with the framework-development history and the speakers' recent scholarly work, and the question-submission form for the moderated Q&A segment. The platform's broader confidentiality framework applies to the moderated Q&A discussion content but not to the primary speaker conversation, which is recorded and made available to registered attendees following the event.

The roundtable series joins a broader scholarly-and-movement conversation that the Reproductive Justice Network maintains across the year. Adjacent events include the network's quarterly virtual sessions with other senior reproductive-justice scholars including conversations with founding framework contributors who continue to develop the work across multiple decades of practice.

Members of the Reproductive Justice Network are encouraged to engage with the broader scholarly literature that the roundtable participants and adjacent senior scholars have produced. The network maintains a curated reading list that members can use to deepen their engagement with the framework and its contemporary applications across different policy and movement contexts.