Dr. Margot Challborn

I study the governance of intimate life in Canada with a particular focus on the regulation of non/monogamy and legal parentage. My doctoral thesis, “Complicated Love: Parentage, Conjugality and Family Diversity in Canada”, examines the extension of legal parentage beyond the traditional nuclear family by analysing recent case law, legislation, and social policy for families using Assisted Reproductive Technologies and parents in polyamorous relationships. My research found that current reforms to legal parentage, and judicial decisions surrounding multi-parentage recognition, still adhere to the nuclear family form. Moreover, my project demonstrates the legal and social limitations of formal and informal citizenship regimes, the limits that legal regimes place on expressions of individual autonomy, and the role of the state in mediating intimate life.

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Research interests

• Gender, race, sexuality, intimacy
• Legal parentage, kinship, family
• Legislation and social policy
• Sexual citizenship
• Legal studies