by ana.cerezuela@uab.cat | Dec 16, 2025 | Conferences, Diseminación
The conference “Daughters of the Climate Emergency: rebuilding futures, rethinking motherhood, inhabiting Barcelona”, held on 20 November at Espai Ca l’Alier, marked the conclusion of the research project Viure l’embaràs a Barcelona: dones i persones gestants davant l’emergència climàtica, developed by the AFIN research group at the UAB, with the support of Barcelona City Council and the collaboration of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu and Hospital del Mar.
The event brought together anthropologists, architects, urban planners, physicians, nurses and public policy experts, who discussed the effects of climate change and pollution on maternal and child health. In addition, AFIN researchers Carolina Remorini, Ana Cerezuela and Helena Montasell presented the main results of the study in poster format, with the aim of placing the findings of the anthropological research in dialogue with the experiences and perspectives shared throughout the different activities of the conference.
Dr Carme Valls-Llobet (CAPS) delivered the keynote lecture Science, health and reproduction: the biological, social and environmental crossroads, and the round tables addressed, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the interactions between climate change, maternal and child health and public policies. Participants included María Dolores Gómez Roig (Hospital Sant Joan de Déu), Sònia Hernández-Montaño Bou (Arquitectura Sana), Darko Kramer (Ecoserveis), Nicolás Olea (University of Granada), Miguel Felipe Sánchez Saúco (HCU Virgen de la Arrixaca), Anna Espart (SOCSA), Anaïs Bas Mantilla (Cíclica) and Laia Pineda (Institut Infància i Adolescència de Barcelona).
In addition, the artist and educator Chari Cámara carried out a live graphic intervention that captured the emerging themes, as well as a participatory activity in which attendees were invited to create collective care networks in the urban context.
Several media outlets highlighted that the research points to the difficulties that, according to the study participants, the city of Barcelona presents for caregiving and child-rearing during pregnancy and early childhood, as well as the way in which economic inequalities seriously condition families’ ability to protect maternal and child health in the face of the climate crisis. The conclusions underline the need to promote structural public policies in the areas of environmental health, urban planning and children’s rights. In this sense, the meeting benefited greatly from the interdisciplinary nature of the programme and served as a starting point for potential lines of research and intervention addressing the different aspects that shape the context and environment of people living in the city.
These are some of the news published in the media and on social media:
by ana.cerezuela@uab.cat | Nov 17, 2025 | Conferences
Last October, at the XXX Congress of Neonatology and Perinatal Medicine SENEO/SEEN, held from October 22 to 24, 2025, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, preliminary results from the project Viure l’embaràs a Barcelona: dones i persones gestants davant l’emergència climàtica (Living Pregnancy in Barcelona: Women and Pregnant People Facing the Climate Emergency) were presented. This project, funded by the Barcelona City Council, has been developed by the AFIN Group in collaboration with Hospital Sant Pau, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, and Hospital del Mar.
The presentation, titled “Living Pregnancy and Lactation: Pregnant and Lactating Women Facing the Climate Emergency”, in poster format, was prepared by Montserrat Fàbregas Mitjans, Helena Montasell i Punsola, Ana Cerezuela González, and Carolina Remorini. It presented the results of the qualitative phase of the project, focusing particularly on the accessibility and adequacy of information about care during pregnancy and early childhood, in relation to exposure to pollutants and the effects of heat waves, as well as the specific challenges that the city of Barcelona presents in this area.
The presentation highlighted the need for healthcare institutions to design and communicate prevention and health promotion strategies that incorporate the social and collective dimensions of health, avoiding an approach focused solely on individual responsibility. It was also emphasized that messages and interventions should take into account women’s broader concerns about their reproductive futures and the everyday limitations they face in child-rearing and motherhood in urban environments.
by ana.cerezuela@uab.cat | Nov 17, 2025 | Publications
Ana Cerezuela, a PhD candidate in Social Anthropology and researcher in the AFIN Group for the project Living Pregnancy in Barcelona: Women and Pregnant People Facing the Climate Emergency, has published the popular science article “A House in the Desert: Reconfigurations of Water and Time by Mothers of Barcelona” in the Fall 2025 edition of Weather Matters, an independent and interdisciplinary publication supported by the Institute for Science, Innovation, and Society (InSiS) at the University of Oxford. The article appears in a special issue titled Unruly Ecologies: Reconfiguring Climate Knowledge through Refusal, Resistance, and (Dis)Rupture, which explores how attempts to know, govern, or intervene in environments and climates encounter incomplete processes, tensions, and resistance.
Ana Cerezuela’s article is based on the qualitative phase of the study on pregnancy and climate emergency conducted by the AFIN Group, with support from the Barcelona City Council, Hospital Sant Pau, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, and Hospital del Mar. The research analyzes how the effects of pollution and climate change in the city of Barcelona influence reproductive health, caregiving practices, and the ways in which mothers envision the future.
Participants reflected on climate anxiety, the loss of familiar landscapes, and everyday tensions caused by extreme heat, pollution, or the lack of green spaces. Their accounts reveal how these phenomena reconfigure the experience of raising children in a context of uncertainty, as well as the care strategies that mothers develop to sustain their children’s lives.
Combining results from ethnographic interviews conducted across different districts of the city with personal reflections, the article specifically explores experiences related to time (past and future) and water extremes (droughts and floods). Through the participants’ accounts and the researchers’ experiences across the seasons during the fieldwork, it offers a reflection on how extreme weather events intersect with motherhood and child-rearing, as well as perceptions of emerging environmental risks.
The article can be read at the following link: https://www.weathermatters.net/a-house-in-the-desert
by ana.cerezuela@uab.cat | Nov 17, 2025 | Conferences
From September 16 to 19, 2025, the international Medical Anthropology Europe Conference took place at the University of Vienna, bringing together researchers from around the world. Over four days, the event provided spaces for debate and collective reflection on the contemporary redefinitions of health and well-being, with the aim of critically considering the possibilities and impossibilities of health today, as well as the role of medical anthropology in a global context. Research from the AFIN group was present in several panels, with contributions addressing issues related to reproductive health, the temporalities of motherhood, and the impact of new technologies in clinical settings.
In the panel “Intersecting frontiers: towards understanding intersections among climate change, culture, gender, and health in the Anthropocene”, organized by Sadiq Bhanbhro and Inayat Ali, Ana Cerezuela, PhD candidate in Social Anthropology with the AFIN group, presented, in co-authorship with Anna Molas and Helena Montasell, the paper “Making future in a changing climate: Maternal experiences of environmental risk and strategies for sustaining life in Barcelona”. This presentation shared results from the project Viure l’embaràs a Barcelona: dones i persones gestants davant l’emergència climàtica, exploring the perceptions and strategies of 35 pregnant or breastfeeding women in Barcelona regarding environmental risks linked to climate change and pollution and their impact on reproductive health in urban contexts.
The panel “Redefining Reproductive Temporalities: Bodies, Gender, Care, and Contestations in Health and Well-Being”, coordinated by Falia Varelaki, Alessandra Brigo, and Manon M. S. Vialle, brought together research on the temporalities of reproductive life. In this context, Diana Marre, Professor and PhD in Social Anthropology and director of the AFIN group, presented, together with Hugo Gaggiotti, the paper “Advanced Maternal Age: Reproductive Temporalities in Spain and UK”. Their presentation explored the tensions faced by women who postpone motherhood in Spain and the United Kingdom, analyzing the intersection between career trajectories, neoliberal welfare regimes, and biomedical norms that define advanced maternal age as a risk factor.
Finally, in the panel “The uterus: knowledges, practices, imaginaries”, organized by Leah Eades and Marie de Lutz, Paula Martone, PhD candidate in Social Anthropology with the AFIN research group, presented, in co-authorship with Anna Molas, the paper “Just like a real uterus? Insights from health professionals and parents on the promises of the Artificial Placenta”. Their presentation explored the perceptions of health professionals, parents, and project promoters regarding the artificial placenta, highlighting tensions between technological innovation and concerns about emotional bonding, reproductive autonomy, and equitable access.
by ana.cerezuela@uab.cat | Sep 25, 2025 | Event
AFIN Barcelona has opened free registration for the public conference “Children of the Climate Emergency: Rebuilding Futures, Rethinking Motherhood, Inhabiting Barcelona”, which will take place on 20 November 2025 at the Centre d’Innovació Urbana Ca l’Alier in Barcelona.
closing conference of the research project Viure l’embaràs a Barcelona: dones i persones gestants davant l’emergència climàtica, carried out by AFIN with the support of the Barcelona City Council and in collaboration with Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, and Hospital del Mar.
The conference is open to everyone and will feature round tables, keynote lectures, research presentations, and participatory activities addressing how women and pregnant people experience climate emergency and pollution in their daily lives in the city of Barcelona.
The program includes two interdisciplinary round tables with experts, a keynote lecture by endocrinologist Carme Valls-Llobet, the presentation of research results by the AFIN team, and an interactive activity.
Registration is completely free and open until 18 November.
