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Anthropology Colloquium: Dána-Ain Davis

Friday, March 26, 2021 at 3:00pm to 4:30pm

Virtual Event

"The Labor(s) of Reproduction: Doulas as Radical Birth Workers​"

 

Dána-Ain Davis is Professor of Urban Studies at Queens College and on the faculty of the PhD Programs in Anthropology and Critical Psychology.  She is the director of the Center for the Study of Women and Society at the Graduate Center.  

In the last decade, Davis has focused her attention on reproduction, race and technologies that assist in reproduction. She has written several articles addressing issues of reproduction and racism including, “Obstetric Racism: The Racial Politics of Pregnancy, Labor, and Birthing,” (2019); “Trump, Race, and Reproduction in the Afterlife of Slavery” (2019); “Feminist Politics, Racialized Imagery, and Social Control: Reproductive Injustice in the Age of Obama” with Beth E. Richie and LaTosha Traylor (2017); “The Bone Collectors” (2016); and, “The Politics of Reproduction: The Troubling Case of Nadya Suleman” (2009). She is the author, co-author, or co-editor of five books, most recently Reproductive Injustice: Racism, Pregnancy, and Premature Birth (NYU Press 2019). The book received the Eileen Basker Memorial Prize from the Society for Medical Anthropology; The Senior Book Prize from the Association of Feminist Anthropology; was named a Finalist for the 2020 PROSE Award in the Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology category, given by the Association of American Publishers. The Victor Turner Ethnographic Writing Award Committee of the Society for Humanistic Anthropology awarded the book an Honorable Mention. The book was also listed in New York Magazine's Strategist column in an article, “Anti-Racist Reading List”  

https://nymag.com/strategist/article/anti-racist-reading-list.html?fbclid=IwAR2RmW7CeOmgIYouAVlJnq8ahp9UMtJhfIH6T_6xVR2oXnhC8JffR9mjgOo  and The Black Feminism Book List  https://bookshop.org/lists/black-feminism-book-list​. 

In Reproductive Injustice, Davis examines medical racism in the lives of professional Black women who have given birth prematurely. The book shows that race confounds the perception that class is the root of adverse birth outcomes and lifts up the role that birth workers—midwives, doulas, and birth advocates—play in addressing Black women’s birth outcomes.  

Davis is the recipient of several awards the most recent being the Brocher Foundation Residency Fellowship in Switzerland for one month in 2021 and the Association of Marquette University Women Chair in Humanistic Studies at Marquette University, in Wisconsin. She will assume the one semester positon of Visiting Chair for the Fall 2021 semester. Davis is also doula and co-founded the Art of Childbirth with doula/midwife Nubia Earth-Martin, that offers free birth education workshops that incorporate artistic expressions in Yonkers, New York.  

Davis has been engaged in social justice, particularly reproductive justice and racial justice. Over the last 30 years she has worked with a number of national reproductive justice organizations including; the New York City Department of Health’s Sexual and Reproductive Justice initiative; and Scholars for Social Justice, Civil Liberties Public Policy (Amherst, MA); National Institute for Reproductive Health; National Network of Abortion Funds, and most recently served on the New York State Governor’s Task Force on Maternal Mortality and Disparate Racial Outcomes and currently serves on the Birth Equity Collaborative in San Francisco, CA.  

In addition to Reproductive Injustice, she is the author, co-author, or co-editor of four books including: Battered Black Women and Welfare Reform: Between a Rock and Hard Place (2006); Black Genders and Sexualities with Shaka McGlotten (2012); Feminist Activist Ethnography: Counterpoints to Neoliberalism in North America with Christa Craven (2013); Feminist Ethnography: Thinking Through Methodologies, Challenges and Possibilities with Christa Craven (First Edition 2016; Second Edition Forthcoming). 

 

Dial-In Information

Register in advance at:

https://cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYoceqtqT8uGtD-tV6Icp9sWAdSFd7RjM81

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Event Type

Lecture

Departments

Anthropology

Tags

cascal, anthro, cashum, govtcal

Contact E-Mail

ek61@cornell.edu

Contact Name

Liz Kirk

Contact Phone

607-255-6479

Speaker

Dána-Ain Davis

Speaker Affiliation

The Graduate Center, CUNY

Dept. Web Site

https://anthropology.cornell.edu

Registration Status

registration is required

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