Institute for Women’s Leadership to host reproductive injustice conversation Oct. 14

Oct. 11, 2021

Dr. Annie MenzelMILWAUKEE — The Institute for Women’s Leadership at Marquette University will host Dr. Annie Menzel for a conversation, “Fatal Deflection: Black Infant Mortality and the Bio-politics of Racial Innocence,” to be held virtually Thursday, Oct. 14, at 5 p.m.

Menzel will discuss her forthcoming book, “Birthing Paradox: Race, Colonization, and Radicalism in US Midwifery,” with conversation host Dr. Dána-Ain Davis, the 2021-22 Association of Marquette Women Women’s Chair in Humanistic Studies.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of the Humanities and is free to attend. Registration is available online.

In “Birthing Paradox,” Menzel seeks to understand the contradictory practices in the homebirth midwifery movement since 1970. She is an assistant professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A political theorist and former midwife, her work focuses on understanding how white supremacy, colonization, and gender-based oppression shape human reproductive life, health, and care—as well as theorizations and praxes of reproductive justice and freedom.

Davis serves as director of the Center for the Study of Women and Society at the Queens College Graduate Center and is a professor of urban studies and anthropology. She is the author, co-author, or co-editor of five books, the most recent being “Reproductive Injustice: Racism, Pregnancy, and Premature Birth,” which received the 2020 Honorable Mention for the Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing; was a finalist for the 2020 PROSE AWARD, given by the Association of American Publishers; and is listed as one of seven books on anti-racism in New York magazine.

The Institute for Women’s Leadership builds upon Marquette University’s historic role as the first coeducational Catholic university in the world beginning in 1909. The mission of the IWL is to advance women’s leadership locally and globally through pioneering research, innovative programming and collaborative engagement.

The Center for the Advancement of the Humanities seeks to advance a culture of healing in response to grand and global challenges of our times. Underlying these challenges are basic issues of meaning, purpose, and value that the humanities confront through engaging the fundamental question: Who are we and how ought we to live? Founded in 2018, the center strives to cultivate, enhance, and enact the humanistic enterprise vital to the flourishing both of a Catholic, Jesuit university and the wider community.

About Kevin Conway

Kevin Conway

Kevin is the associate director for university communication in the Office of University Relations. Contact Kevin at (414) 288-4745 or kevin.m.conway@marquette.edu.