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. 

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