Wednesday, April 19th 5:30-7:30pm in Caldwell Hall 105
The Department of Communication will host “In the Room: Women of Color Doulas in a Time of Crisis” with Dr. Jennifer C. Nash, the Jean Fox O’Barr Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University for the next installment of the COMM Speaker Series on Wednesday, April 19, 2023 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm in 105 Caldwell Hall. This event is free and open to the public. CLE credit is available. Please share with any audiences you feel would be interested.
About the “In the Room”
“In the Room” explores the work of women of color doulas laboring in Chicago in an era where doulas are increasingly hailed -by the state and by activists- as precisely the innovation that can save black mother’s lives. Professor Nash’s analysis draws on twenty-three interviews she conducted in 2018 with birth doulas-many of whom describe themselves as “bodyguards” — working in the Chicago metropolitan area. She explores the complicated tensions around professionalization and the medicalization of birth that underpins their practice, and considers the place of their work in the ongoing effort to eradicate black infant and maternal mortality.
About Dr. Jennifer Nash
Jennifer C. Nash is Jean Fox O’Barr Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University. She is the author of three books – all on Duke University Press – Birthing Black Mothers, Black Feminism Reimagined: After Intersectionality, and The Black Body in Ecstasy: Reading Race, Reading Pornography.
