Natália da Silva Perez

Short presentation

My research at PRIVACY focuses on the experiences of women and men of lower social status, and their interaction with their families, communities, and authorities. I am especially interested in bodily privacy. My main current research question involves comparatively examining how women’s ability to work (or their access to other modes of subsistence) might have been influenced by attempts to control their fertility. I focus on historical primary sources from a number of city-cases of the PRIVACY research program: Versailles, Amsterdam, Altona and Glasgow. I look into historical sources that document issues related to bodily and sexual privacy, such as unwanted pregnancies, attempts at avoiding pregnancies, pregnancy termination, and infanticide. My research is informed by an intersectional feminist analysis of my historical material. At PRIVACY, I also produce and host the Privacy Studies Podcast, I am a contributor to the Privacy Studies Blog, and I am a member of the PRIVACY Digital Humanities Task Force, which promotes historian’s engagement with digital methods and tools.