Office Hours

Monday & Wednesday 1:30-3:00pm

Get to Know Natalie

Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz joined the faculty after completing her PhD in Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2012 with a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from Duke University. 

Professor Fixmer-Oraiz is the author of two books: Homeland Maternity: US Security Culture and the New Reproductive Regime (2019) and Doing Gender Justice: Queering Reproduction, Kin, and Care (2025; with Shui-yin Sharon Yam). She has published articles on rhetoric and reproductive justice, the commercial surrogacy industry, and third-wave feminism in academic journals such as Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Women’s Studies in Communication, and Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies; her work has also appeared in outlets such as The Washington Post and Iowa Public Radio. Fixmer-Oraiz is currently collaborating with Professors Lina-Maria Murillo and Asha Bhandary on a new book project that explores reproductive justice and care. 

Professor Fixmer-Oraiz also co-edits the Locating Reproductive Justice book series with Professor Murillo through the University of Iowa Press, and co-authors the award-winning textbook Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, and Culture with Julia T. Wood.

She teaches courses in rhetorical theory and criticism, gender and sexuality studies, social movements and feminisms. Her scholarship and teaching emerge from a combination of academic training alongside two decades of experience in reproductive politics as a community organizer and advocate in various local and regional contexts. 

Awards

• James A. Winans-Herbert A. Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address for Homeland Maternity: U.S. Security Culture and the New Reproductive Regime (University of Illinois Press, 2019), awarded by National Communication Association, 2020
• Named Finalist, RSA Book Award, awarded by Rhetorical Society of America, 2020
• American Fellowship, RSA Book Award, awarded by American Association of University Women, 2011-12
• K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award, RSA Book Award, awarded by American Association of Colleges and Universities, 2012

Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz CV