Amínata Maraesa, Ph.D. Reading List
• Katz Rothman, Barbara. 1989. Introduction. In Recreating Motherhood. New
Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
• Thurer, Shari. 1994. Mothering—The Old-Fashioned Way and History Begins,
Herstory Ends. In The Myths of Motherhood: How Culture Reinvents the Good Mother.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
• Colen, Shellee. 1995. “Like a Mother to Them”: Stratified Reproduction in the West
Indian Childcare Workers and Employers in New York. In Conceiving the New World
Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction, eds. Faye Ginsburg and Rayna Rapp. Pp.
• Sargent, Carolyn. 2011. Problematizing Polygamy, Managing Maternity: The
Intersections of Global, State, and Family Politics in the Live of West African Migrant
Women in France. In Reproduction, Globalization, and the State, eds. Carole Browner
and Carolyn Sargent.
• Wilkie, Laurie. 2003. African-American Mothering and Enslavement. In The
Archaeology of Mothering. New York: Routledge
Crittenden, Ann. 2001. How Mother’s Work Was “Disappeared”: The Invention of the
Unproductive Housewife and The Truly Invisible Hand. In The Price of Motherhood:
Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued. New York:
Metropolitan Books
• Maushart, Susan. 2000. The Juggled Life. In The Mask of Motherhood: How Becoming
a Mother Changes Our Lives and Why We Never Talk about It. New York: Penguin
Books.
• Hoffman, Diane. 2013. Power Struggles: The Paradoxes of Emotion and Control
Among Child-Centred Mothers in Privileged America. In Parenting in Global
Perspective: Negotiating Ideologies of Kinship, Self and Politics, eds. Charlotte Faircloth,
Diane Hoffman, and Linda Layne. New York: Routledge.
• Le, Huynh-Nhu. 2000. Never Leave Your Child Alone: Raising an Ifaluk Child. In A
World of Babies: Imagined Childcare Guides for Seven Societies, ed. Judy S. DeLoache.
• Jiménez, Livia. 2013. "Spanish People Don’t Know How to Rear their Children!"
Dominican Women’s Resistance to Intensive Mothering. In Parenting in Global
Perspective: Negotiating Ideologies of Kinship, Self and Politics, eds. Charlotte
Faircloth, Diane Hoffman, and Linda Layne. New York: Routledge.
FILM: Character Formation in Different Cultures: Bathing Babies in Three Cultures,
1951. Dirs. Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead
• Van Hollen, Cecelia. 2013. Breast or Bottle? HIV-Positive Women’s Responses to
Global Health Policy on Infant Feeding. In Birth in the Age of AIDS: Women,
Reproduction, and HIV/AIDS in India. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Hausman, Bernice. 2003. Dead Babies. In Mother’s Milk: Breastfeeding Controversies
in American Culture. New York: Routledge.
• Faircloth, Charlotte. 2013. ‘Intensive Motherhood’ in Comparative Perspective:
Feminism, Full-term Breastfeeding and Attachment Parenting in London and Paris. In
Parenting in Global Perspective: Negotiating Ideologies of Kinship, Self and Politics,
eds. Charlotte Faircloth, Diane Hoffman, and Linda Layne. New York: Routledge.
• Sutton, Constance. 1996. “Motherhood Is Powerful”: Embodied Knowledge from
Evolving Field-Based Experiences. Anthropology and Humanism 23(2)
Motherhood Studies Reading List
FILM: Latching On: The Politics of Breastfeeding in America, 2010. Dir. Katja Esson
(36 min.)
• Layne, Linda. 2003. “I Will Never Forget You”: Trauma, Memory, and Moral
Identity AND Breaking the Silence: A Feminist Agenda for Pregnancy Loss. In
Motherhood Lost: A Feminist Account of Pregnancy Loss in America. New York:
Routledge.
• Fordyce, Lauren. 2014. When Bad Mothers Lose Good Babies: Understanding Fetal
and Infant Mortality Case Reviews. Medical Anthropology
Van der Sjipt, Erica. 2014. The Unfortunate Sufferer: Discursive Dynamics around
Pregnancy Loss in Cameroon. Medical Anthropology
• Belton, Suzanne. 2007. Burmese Women and Unwanted Pregnancy: “I Thought My
Blood Was Stuck inside Me.” In Reproduction, Childbearing and Motherhood: A CrossCultural Perspective, ed. Pranee Liamputtong.
• Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. 1993. “Lifeboat Ethics: Mother Love and Child Death in
Northeast Brazil.” In Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective, eds. Caroline Brettell and
Carolyn Sargent,
• Aengst, Jennifer. 2014. Moral Outrage and Silent Narratives: Infanticide as
Reproductive Disruption. Medical Anthropology
FILM: Gift of a Girl: Female Infanticide, 1997. Jo Smith (24 min.)
Meyer, Cheryl and Michelle Oberman. 2001. Introduction; Purposeful Killing: Neither
“mad” nor “Bad”; AND Maternal Neglect: A Search for Meaning. In Mothers Who Kill
Their Children Understanding the Acts of Moms from Susan Smith to the "Prom Mom".
New York: New York University Press.
• Oberman, Michelle. 2008. Mothering: Hopes, Expectations, and Realities. In When
Mothers Kill: Interviews from Prison. New York: New York University Press. Pp. 67-84.
FILM: Motherhood on Trial: The Tragedy of Susan Smith, 2007. Dir. Lynn Estomin (26
min.). [Alexander Street]
• Coe, Cati. 2013. The Scattered Family: Parenting, African Migrants, and Global
Inequality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Coe, Cati. 2013. The Scattered Family: Parenting, African Migrants, and Global
Inequality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
FIELD-TRIP:
Museum of Motherhood (M.O.M.)
401 East 84th St. NYC 10028 (at 1st Ave.) lower level
We will meet at 10:00am at the museum entrance for a guided tour
• Gowda, Shilpi Somaya. 2010. Secret Daughter. New York: Harper Collins.
• Layne, Linda. 2013. Intensive Parenting Alone: Negotiating the Cultural
Contradictions of Motherhood as a Single Mother by Choice. In Parenting in Global
Perspective: Negotiating Ideologies of Kinship, Self and Politics, eds. Charlotte
Faircloth, Diane Hoffman, and Linda Layne. New York: Routledge. Pp. 213-228.
• Mouser Elegbede, Audrey. 2011. Becoming a “Single Mom”: Featuring Motherhood
over Marital Status among Malays in Muslim Malaysia. In An Anthropology of
Mothering, eds. Michele Walks and Naomi McPherson. Ontario, Canada: Demeter
Press. Pp. 240-250.
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Motherhood Studies Reading List
Landsman, Gail. 2009. Doing Everything Right: Choice, Control, and Mother-Blame. In
Reconstructing Motherhood and Disability in the Age of "Perfect" Babies. New York:
Routledge. Pp. 15-47.
• Vaidya, Shubhangi. 2011. Mothering as Ideology and Practice: The Experiences of
Mothers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In An Anthropology of Mothering,
eds. Michele Walks and Naomi McPherson. Ontario, Canada: Demeter Press. Pp. 226239.
• Balffer Hrdy, Sarah. 2009. Why It Takes a village. In Mothers and Others: The
Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Pp. 65-110.
• Masvie, Hilde. 2007. The Role of Tamang Grandmothers in Perinatal Care, Makwanpur
District, Nepal. In Childrearing and Infant Care Issues: A Cross-Cultural Perspective,
ed. Pranee Liamputtong. Pp. 167-184.
• Dalton, Susan and Denise Bielby. 2000. “That’s Our Kind of Constellation”: Lesbian
Mothers negotiate Institutionalized Understandings of Gender within the Family.
Gender and Society 14(1):36-61.
Teman, Elly. 2010. Birthing a Mother: The Surrogate Body and the Pregnant Self.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
FILM: Google Baby, 2011. Dir. Zippi Brand Frank (76 min.)
Teman, Elly. 2010. Birthing a Mother: The Surrogate Body and the Pregnant Self.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
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Laura Tropp PhD Reading List
Thurer, Shari The Myths of Motherhood
Hrdy, Sarah, Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How they Shape the Human Species
Douglas & Michaels. The Mommy Myth
In class: Visit the Museum of Motherhood located at 401 East 84th
Rich, Adrienne, Of Woman Born
Badinter, Elisabeth, The Conflict
Crittenden, Ann. The Price of Motherhood
Hochschild, Arlie. The Second Shift
In class activity: Compare television portrayal of feminism and motherhood
Hewletter, A Lesser Life
Belkin, Lisa “The Opt-Out Revolution” The New York Times
Slaughter, Ann-Marie, “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All” The Atlantic
In class activity: View and discuss Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In Ted Talk
Grant, Julia. Raising Baby by the Book
Warner, Judith. Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety
Sullivan, Maureen. “Alma Mater: Family ‘Outings’ and the Making of the Modern Other
Mother (MOM).” Queer Families, Queer Politics: Challenging Culture and the State.
Eisenberg, Ziv. “The Making of Prenatal Psychology in Mid-Twentieth Century
America. Journal of Women’s Histories
Tropp, Laura. A Womb with a View
Spar, Debora The Baby Business: How Money, Science and Politics Drive the Commerce
of Conception
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Motherhood Studies Reading List
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Selection from: Epstein, Randi Hunter, Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the
Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank.
Selection from Davis-Floyd, Robbie E. Birth as an American Rite of Passage
Shields, Brooke, And Down Came the Rain
In Class: view and discuss The Business of Being Born
Friedman, May “For Whom is Breast Best? Thoughts on Breastfeeding, Feminism and
Ambivalence”
Lunceford, Brett. “Weaponizing the Breast” Lactating and Public Breastfeeding
clips from Formula for Disaster
Selection from Paul, Pamela, Parenting Inc.
Mitchell, Lisa and Eugenia Georges. “Baby’s First Picture: The Cyborg Fetus of
Ultrasound Imaging” Cyborg Babies
Leavitt, Judith Walzer. Make Room for Daddy
Yngvesson, Barbara “Going ‘Home’” Adoption, Exclusive Belongings and the
Mythology of Roots”
Sullivan, Maureen “Alma Mater: Family “outings” and the Making of the Modern Other
Mother (MOM)
Jocelyn Fenton Stitt PhD Reading List
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Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection – Sara Hrdy
Maternal Theory:
In Search of Out Mother’s Gardens – Alice Walker
“Quasheba, Mother, Queen” from Citizenship from Below - Mimi Sheller
The Meaning of Motherhood in Black Culture and In Mother Daughter Relationships
– Patricia Hill Collins
Con el Palote en Una Mano y el Libro en la Otra – Mercado-Lopez
Maternal Theory:
Right to Mothering: Motherhood as a Transborder Concern - Cheng
Giving Life to the People: An Indigenous Ideology of Motherhood – Anderson
Killing the Black Body – Dorothy Roberts
“Maternal Practice: Mothering and Cultural Variation in Anthropology” Schlage
UNICEF Video on Teen Mothers in the Caribbean (8 min link on D2L)
Teen Mother in Tanzania (2 min)
Flat Broke With Children, Sharon Hays
Brown Bodies, White Eggs- Laura Harrison
More Than Talk: Single Mothers Claiming Space and Subjectivity on the University
Campus – Duquaine-Watson:
From Postcolonial to Postpartum: Pedagogical Politics of Motherhood - Stitt
The Baby and the Bathwater: Disabled Women and Motherhood in Social Context –
Thomas
“Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe V. Wade” – Rickie
Solinger
Weaving a Family: Untangling Race and Adoption, Barbara Katz Rothman
The Girls Who Went Away, Ann Fessler
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Motherhood Studies Reading List
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Film: The Magdalene Sisters
“Love and Gold” from Feminist Politics, Activism and Vision – Arlie Hochschild
Mothers Who Deliver:
Constrained Agency: British Heterosexual Mothers of Homosexual Sons – Peukert
Man Child: A Black Lesbian’s Feminist Response – Lorde
Mothers Who Deliver:
CH 11 From Gestation to Delivery: Embodied Activist Mothering of Cindy Sheehan
and Jennifer Schumaker
Political Motherhood in the United States and Argentina- Gibbons
Motherhood and Feminism, Amber Kinser
Lesbians Choosing Children: The Personal Is Political Revisited – Polikoff
Film A Çrushing Love: Chicanas, Motherhood and Activism
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