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Comadrisma as Method for reproductive justice by Sarah Upton et al

“This is the first paper for ARJ that takes a reproductive justice approach to action research. The comadrisma method described illustrates the healing power of feminist intentions contextualised within action researching processes. The level of care shown not just in the process but also in the writing is inspirational.” -Dr. Marina Apgar, ARJ associate editor who led the peer review of this paper.

Sarah writes: “Comadres are the relationships grounded in safety, love, vulnerability and empathy that we grow beyond our families. This term is rooted in Latinx culture, and both encompasses and expands the concept of friendship to include godmothers, midwives, best friends, confidants, coworkers, advisors, neighbors, healers, leaders, and activists. Working together as comadres and engaging in comadrisma, an embodied practice and ethic of collective care, has allowed us to build communities with intention, creating space for us to raise our families and ourselves.  Comadrisma also offers an alternative way to engage in academia.  It allows us to work collectively with students and to push back against institutional norms that celebrate individual progress and idealize the traditional student. 

Comadrisma is rooted in reproductive justice. Reproductive justice, as defined by SisterSong, is a framework centered on three pillars (1) The right to have children, (2) The right to not have children, and (3) the right to parent children in safe, healthy, and sustainable communities. In this article we demonstrate how engaging in comadrisma as a method is necessary for achieving reproductive justice in society and within academic spaces. We focus specifically on the experiences of student parents, who are frequently offered a lesser academic experience, such as limited resources and being passed over for opportunities. Reproductive justice argues that students have the right to have children at any point in their academic careers, and comadrisma creates spaces on campus where student parents and their children are not only welcomed, but also lead.  This space, this pace and these relationships create the safe and sustainable communities that are central to reproductive justice.

We ultimately offer comadrisma as a reproductive justice methodology for action research. If we aim to create space for families to thrive in safe environments, we have to include them in the research process. Families need to be in the room, in ways that make space for them and their children, and beyond that they should ultimately be guiding the aims of the research according to their own lived experiences and the needs, desires, and goals of their families.”

Forever Link

Upton, S. D. L. S., & Fertman, N. (2025). Comadrisma as Method: A Reproductive Justice Approach to Community Based Participatory Action Research. Action Research, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/14767503251355473