- Between weeks 8 and 12, each student should provide a weekly reflection (500 words) on the data you have collected to date.
- What data did you collect?
- What is your initial impression of the data?
- How have the data you have collected this week changed/progressed your thinking about your research project?
- What challenges did you encounter while collecting the data?
- What are your next steps?
Interestingly enough, “neoliberalism and reproduction” does not give me a whole lot for my topic. This search mostly yielded the reproduction of neoliberalism in terms of theory or politics. Searching “reproductive choice” yielded more relevant readings. So, most of the data I collected has been from the first two books, which I was able to read online. The others I will retrieve from the library and perhaps be able to speak on them in the next log.
Reproducing Race: An Ethnography of Pregnancy As a Site of Racialization
- Intro
- Poor mothers and pregnant women are seen by hospital staff at Alpha as making “bad choices” for buying expensive bags but not being able to afford insurance or medicine, unlike the staff who have jobs, pay for the necessities and therefore cannot spend money on frivolities
- Part One: Class
- Alpha is a second-tier hospital that mostly caters to the poor and people of color
- Alpha is a teaching hospital that is understaffed and underfunded, resulting in lesser quality healthcare for the two former populations
- Patients required to meet with a host of professionals in order for them to make the right choices for themselves and their future baby, a minimum of 4
- abortion counselors, patient advocates, geneticists, HIV counselors, nurse/health educators, nutritionists, social workers, and financial officers (37)
- Part Two: Race
- Pregnant women of color, particularly immigrant women, are looked down upon by the majority white staff for not making the “right” choices such as learning English or getting an education before having a baby
Testing Women, Testing the Fetus: The Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America
Reproductive rights and wrongs: the global politics of population control and contraceptive choice
The woman in the body: a cultural analysis of reproduction
The hidden malpractice: how American medicine mistreats women
Cut it out: the C-section epidemic in America
How All Politics Became Reproductive Politics
Needing to read all of these books is definitely going to be a challenge, picking out what I need effectively while staying on top of my other work. For next steps, I hope to have a general idea of what each book is about and where I can fit them into my research. then I can pull specific ideas and passages to strengthen my argument.
When you search for sources, do not limit yourself to “neoliberalism” as a keyword. Try to break it down into different components (e.g. managerialism, efficiency), which would help you cast a wider net.
For your next log, please also clarify which aspects of neoliberalism you are planning to focus on. You can change them later but you should have a more clear idea about how you will address neoliberalism in your project. This would help you narrow down your search for sources as well.