Rebecca Siddall

PhD Researcher
Faculty:
Faculty of Arts, Humanities, Education and Social Sciences
School:
Cambridge School of Creative Industries
Location:
Cambridge
Areas of Expertise:
Cultural Studies , Digital Media , Gendered violence

Rebecca is an interdisciplinary PhD researcher exploring the intersections between reproductive rights and contemporary media.

Email: [email protected]

Website

Background

Rebecca’s research interest in cultural studies of reproduction began during her Natural Sciences integrated Master’s degree at the University of Cambridge; she specialised in History and Philosophy of Science, with a focus on the history and politics of reproduction. Her Master’s thesis examined how the language of eugenics appeared in digital media discourses about overpopulation.

In 2025, she was awarded a Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship to undertake PhD research into gender-based violence and media at ARU, supervised by Dr Tanya Horeck and Dr Tina Kendall. The working title for her thesis is ‘Investigating Reproductive Abuse as a Form of Rape Culture in Contemporary Media’.

Research interests
  • Reproductive justice
  • History and politics of reproduction
  • Gender-based violence
  • Feminist Media Studies
  • Reproduction in popular culture
  • Eugenics and reproductive coercion
  • Queer reproduction
  • History and philosophy of science and medicine
Qualifications
  • MSci History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
  • BA Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge
Memberships, editorial boards
Selected recent publications

Siddall, R. (2022). 'It’s Easier to Kill a Guerilla in the Womb than in the Mountains”: Examining 1970s Science for the People Articles about Population Control’, Cambridge Journal of Human Behaviour, 1(1), pp. 59–66.

Recent presentations and conferences

November 2025: ‘Population Panic and the Feminised Reproductive Body in the Digital Age’, Reproduction and Sustainability symposium, University of Cambridge, UK (invited talk).

June 2025: ‘Investigating Reproductive Abuse as a Form of Rape Culture in Contemporary Media’, AHESS Faculty Research Conference, Anglia Ruskin University, UK (conference poster).

March 2023: ‘“It’s Easier to Kill a Guerilla in the Womb than in the Mountains”: Examining 1970s Science for the People Articles about Population Control’, Science, Technology, Medicine and Society (STMS) Conference, University of Toronto, Canada (conference paper).