SOCI 4113 - Reproduction and Social Theory - Winter 2006
Thursdays 2:30 - 5:30
RB 2044
Dr. Rachel Ariss RB 2043
tel: 343-8792 emails:
Course Description:In this course, we will discuss various aspects of human reproduction, and examine what happens when we centre this knowledge in developing and critiquing social theory.
Course Materials: Reproduction and Social Theory, Sociology 4113 Course Package, Winter 2006. Available at the bookstore.
Course Evaluation:
Class Participation:25%
Seminar Presentation:25%
Research Essay Outline & Bibliography10%
Research Essay40%
Class Participation is essential to this course as there are very few lectures. Learning will take place through actively discussing and critiquing the readings. This is how we will ensure that we understand the author’s arguments and the construction of those arguments. Come to class prepared to discuss what you find interesting in the readings. Ask questions. Connect weekly readings to previous readings. Point out passages you have trouble understanding or which you find very interesting. Think about how use of a certain reproductive technology or construction of a reproductive norm affects how we theorize about society.
Always Bring Readings to Class!
Seminar Presentations: Two or more readings are assigned for each class. The goal of seminar presentations is to ask questions that enable the class to explore the article thoroughly. Give the class 4 or 5 questions or comments to discuss - please give me a list of those for my records. At least one question/comment should explore the relationships between your article and one of the companion articles for that week.
Give a brief introduction to your questions or the article before you ask your questions. Do not summarize the article as I expect every class member to read before class.
Details re: Outline and Bibilography and Research Essay will follow in class.
Class Reading Schedule
- January 4 - Introduction to Class- Orientation Lecture
- January 11 - Infertility and “Stratified Reproduction”
Charis M. Thompson, “Fertile Ground: Feminists Theorize Infertility”.
Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg, “Is Infertility an Unrecognized Health and Population Problem? The View from the Cameroonian Grassfields”.
Shellee Colen, “’Like a Mother to Them’: Stratified Reproduction and West Indian Childcare Workers and Employers in New York”.
- January 18 - Birth Control
Lealle Ruhl, “Dilemmas of the Will: Uncertainty, Reproduction and the Rhetoric of Control”.
Madeline Henley, “The Creation and Perpetuation of the Mother/Body Myth: Judicial and Legislative Enlistment of Norplant”.
- January 25- Population Control
Ann Anagnost, “A Surfeit of Bodies: Population and the Rationality of the State in Post-Mao China”.
Susan Greenhalgh, “Fresh Winds in Beijing: Chinese Feminists Speak Out on the One-Child Policy and Women’s Lives”.
- February 1 - Pregnancy and Ultrasound
Lisa M. Mitchell, “Reconnections: Women, Ultrasound and Reproductive Politics”
Janelle S. Taylor “Of Sonograms and Baby Prams: Prenatal Diagnosis, Pregnancy and Consumption”
- February 8 - Prenatal Diagnostics (PND)
Rayna Rapp, “The Communication of Risk”
Rayna Rapp, “Waiting and Watching”
Janice McLaughlin, “Screening Networks: shared agendas in feminist and disability movement challenges to antenatal screening and abortion”
- February 15 - Abortion
Laury Oaks, “Abortion is Part of the Irish Experience, It is Part of What We Are”: The Transformation of Public Discourses on Irish Abortion Policy””
Lealle Ruhl, “Disarticulating Liberal Subjectivities: Abortion and Fetal Protection”
Reading Break!
- March 1 - New Reproductive Technologies - In Vitro Fertilization I
Sarah Franklin, “’Having to Try’ and ‘Having to Choose’: How IVF Makes Sense” in her Embodied Progress: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception
Karen Throsby and Rosalind Gill, “’It’s Different for Men’: Masculinity and IVF”
Chris Cussins, “Producing Reproduction: Techniques of Normalization and Naturalization in Infertility Clinics”
- March 8 - New Reproductive Technologies - In Vitro Fertilization II - Donor Gametes
Anne Pollock, “Complicating Power in High-tech Reproduction: Narratives of Anonymous Paid Egg Donors”
Maggie Kirkman, “Genetic Connections and Relationships in Narratives of Donor-Assisted Conception”
Marcia C. Inhorn, “Global Fertility and the globalization of new reproductive technologies: Illustrations from Egypt”
- March 15 - New Reproductive Technologies - Conventional and Gestational Surrogacy
Deborah Grayson, “Mediating Intimacy: Black Surrogate Mothers and the Law”Helena Ragone, “Of Likeness and Difference: How Race is Being Transfigured by Gestational Surrogacy”
- March 22 - Midwifery
John D. O’Niel and Patrician Leyland Kaufert, “Irniktakpunga!: Sex Determination and the Inuit Struggle for Birthing Rights in Northern Canada”
Margaret MacDonald, “Postmodern Negotiations with Medical Technology: The Role of Midwifery Clients in the New Midwifery in Canada”
Vick Van Wagner, “Why Legislation?: Using Legislation to Strengthen Midwifery”
- March 29 - Birthing and Mothering
Patricia Hill Collins, “Shifting the Centre: Race, Class and Feminist Theorizing about Motherhood”
Sarah Vaughan Brakman and Sally J. Scholz, “Adoption, ART, and a Re-Conception of the Maternal Body: Toward Embodied Maternity”
Reproduction and Social Theory - Sociology 4113
Course Package Table of Contents
Charis M. Thompson, “Fertile Ground: Feminists Theorize Infertility”, in Marcia C. Inhorn and Frank van Balen, eds. Infertility Around the Globe: New Thinking on Childlessness, Gender and Reproductive Technologies.Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002 pp. 52 - 78 (total book pp. 347)
Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg, “Is Infertility an Unrecognized Health and Population Problem? The View from the Cameroonian Grassfields” in Marcia C. Inhorn and Frank van Balen, eds. Infertility Around the Globe: New Thinking on Childlessness, Gender and Reproductive Technologies.Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002 pp. 215 - 232 (total book pp. 347)
Shellee Colen, “’Like a Mother to Them’: Stratified Reproduction and West Indian Childcare Workers and Employers in New York” in Faye D. Ginsburg and Rayna Rapp, eds., Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction.Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995 pp. 78 - 102 (book total 450 pp.)
Lealle Ruhl, “Dilemmas of the Will; Uncertainty, Reproduction and the Rhetoric of Control” (2002) Signs: Journal of Women and Culture in Society 641 - 663.
Madeline Henley, “The Creation and Perpetuation of the Mother/Body Myth: Judicial and Legislative Enlistment of Norplant” (1993) 41 Buffalo Law Review 703 - 777.
Ann Anagnost, “A Surfeit of Bodies: Population and the Rationality of the State in Post-Mao China” in Faye D. Ginsburg and Rayna Rapp, eds., Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction.Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995 pp. 22 - 41 (book total 450 pp.)
Susan Greenhalgh, “Fresh Winds in Beijing: Chinese Feminists Speak Out on the One-Child Policy and Women’s Lives” (2001) Signs 26: 847-886.
Lisa M. Mitchell, “Reconnections: Women, Ultrasound and Reproductive Politics” in her Baby’s First Picture: Ultrasound and the Politics of Fetal Subjects.Toronto; University of Toronto Press, 2001. pp. 169 - 200 (book total pp. 258)
Janelle S. Taylor “Of Sonograms and Baby Prams: Prenatal Diagnosis, Pregnancy and Consumption” (2000) Feminist Studies 26(2): 391 - 418
Rayna Rapp, “The Communication of Risk” in her Testing Women, Testing the Fetus: The Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America. New York: Routledge, 2000 pp. 53 - 77 (book total pp. 359)
Rayna Rapp, “Waiting and Watching” ” in her Testing Women, Testing the Fetus: The Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America. New York: Routledge, 2000 pp. 103 - 128 (book total pp. 359)
Janice McLaughlin, “Screening Networks: shared agendas in feminist and disability movement challenges to antenatal screening and abortion” (2003) Disability & Society 18(3): 297-310.
Laury Oaks, “Abortion is Part of the Irish Experience, It is Part of What We Are”: The Transformation of Public Discourses on Irish Abortion Policy” (2002) Women’s Studies International Forum 25(3): 315-333.
Lealle Ruhl, “Disarticulating Liberal Subjectivities: Abortion and Fetal Protection” (2002) Feminist Studies 28: 37 - 59.
Sarah Franklin, “’Having to Try’ and ‘Having to Choose’: How IVF Makes Sense” in her Embodied Progress: A Cultural Account of Assisted ConceptionLondon: Routledge, 1997 pp. 168 - 197 (book total pp. 252).
Karen Throsby and Rosalind Gill, “’It’s Different for Men’: Masculinity and IVF” (2004) Men and Masculinities 6: 330 - 348.
Chris Cussins, “Producing Reproduction: Techniques of Normalization and Naturalization in Infertility Clinics” in Sarah Franklin and Helena Ragone, eds., Reproducing Reproduction: Kinship, Power and Technological InnovationPhiladelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998 pp. 132 - 155 (total book pp. 245)
Anne Pollock, “Complicating Power in High-tech Reproduction: Narratives of Anonymous Paid Egg Donors” (2003) Journal of Medical Humanities 24(3/4) : 241 - 263.
Maggie Kirkman, “Genetic Connections and Relationships in Narratives of Donor-Assisted Conception” (2004) Australian Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society 2:1 - 20.
Marcia C. Inhorn, “Global Fertility and the Globalization of new reproductive technologies: Illustrations from Egypt” (2003) Social Science & Medicine 56: 1837 - 1851.
Deborah Grayson, “Mediating Intimacy: Black Surrogate Mothers and the Law” in Paul Brodwin, ed. Biotechnology and Culture: Bodies, Anxieties, Ethics.Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000 pp. 99 - 121 (total book pp. 296).
Helena Ragone, “Of Likeness and Difference: How Race is Being Transfigured by Gestational Surrogacy” in Helena Ragone and France Winddance Twine, eds. Ideologies and Technologies of Motherhood: Race, Class, Sexuality, NationalismNew York: Routledge, 2000 pp. 56 - 75 (total book pp. 330)
John D. O’Niel and Patrician Leyland Kaufert, “Irniktakpunga!: Sex Determination and the Inuit Struggle for Birthing Rights in Northern Canada” in Faye D. Ginsburg and Rayna Rapp, eds., Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction.Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995 pp. 59 - 73 (book total 450 pp.)
Margaret MacDonald, “Postmodern Negotiations with Medical Technology: The Role of Midwifery Clients in the New Midwifery in Canada” (2001) Medical Anthropology 20: 245-276.
Vick Van Wagner, “Why Legislation?: Using Legislation to Strengthen Midwifery” in Lynn Bourgeault, Cecilia benoit and Robbie Davis-Floyd, eds. Reconceiving Midwifery. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004 pp. 71 - 90 (total book pp. 335)
Sarah Vaughan Brakman and Sally J. Scholz, “Adoption, ART, and a Re-Conception of the Maternal Body: Toward Embodied Maternity” (2006) Hypatia 21: 54 - 73.
Patricia Hill Collins, “Shifting the Centre: Race, Class and Feminist Theorizing about Motherhood” in Donna Bassin, Margaret Honey and Meryle Mahrer Kaplan, eds. Representations of Motherhood. New haven: Yale University Press, 1994 pp. 56 - 74 (total book pp. 294).