Chikako Takeshita

Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies
Ph.D. 2004, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Office: 2013 CHASS Interdisciplinary Building
Phone: (951) 827-6077
e-mail: chikako.takeshita@ucr.edu


In 2003-04, Professor Takeshita was a Dissertation Fellow in the Women’s Studies Program at
UC Santa Barbara. Her works focus on the relationships among the global political economy, gender and reproductive politics, and science, technology, and medicine. Her dissertation, "Negotiating the Acceptability of the Intrauterine Device (IUD): Contraceptive Technology, Women’s Bodies, and Politics of Fertility Control," follows the social and scientific development of the IUD from the 1960s to present. She critiques the scientific discourses that often justified the use of the technology by women of certain race, class, and nationality. Her analyses are informed by the socio-political backgrounds that influenced the scientists and their research, namely international population policies, women’s health movements, American medical practices, and antiabortion politics.