Sci-Tech Asia Webinar
Histories of Childbirth Medicalization in East Asia: An Intercultural Conversation
Webinar Description
In a recent special section of the journal Technology and Culture (June 2020), we put forward the idea that comparing and contrasting East Asian experiences of childbirth medicalization provides an alternative to Western-centric discourses and models that tend to focus on notions of individual choice. In this webinar, we revisit this thesis to engage in a debate about how Chinese and Japanese materials highlight distinct, yet related, trajectories of childbirth medicalization from the 20th century onwards. We situate Chinese and Japanese women’s birthing experiences in the context of larger reproductive assemblages and hierarchies to highlight the changing spatial and temporal moral tensions and social inequalities shaping ongoing processes of childbirth medicalization and modernization.
Speaker
Gonçalo Santos (University of Coimbra)
Gonçalo Santos is an Assistant Professor of Social-Cultural Anthropology in the Department of Life Sciences and a full member of the Research Center for Anthropology and Health (CIAS) at the University of Coimbra. He is the author of Chinese Village Life Today (2021, In Press), and he is the co-editor of Transforming Patriarchy (2017) and of Love, Marriage, and Intimate Citizenship in Contemporary China and India (Modern Asian Studies 2016). He is the director of Sci-Tech Asia.
Chiaki Shirai (Shizuoka University)
Chiaki Shirai is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social and Human Studies, Shizuoka University. She is the author of History of Childbirth, Childrearing, and Midwifery in Japan (Igakushoin 2016, in Japanese) and a large number of articles in respected journals. Her research expertise is family sociology and she is currently working on a project entitled “Gender and Reproduction in Modern Asia: An International Comparison” and “Prenatal Testing and Disability in Modern Asia: International Comparison.”
Suzanne Gottschang (Smith College)
Suzanne Z. Gottschang is a Professor of Anthropology at Smith College and she holds a M.P.H. in global and maternal and child health. She is the author of Formulas for Motherhood in a Chinese Hospital (2018). Her primary research examines the intersection of gender, reproductive technologies, public health, science, and policy. Current research projects include a collaboration on science, technology and modernity in East Asia; technologies of infant formula; traditional Chinese veterinary medicine in the United States and China; and the science of the horse-human relationship.
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Sci-Tech Asia Webinar Series
Our Webinar series features scholars from all over the world sharing their on-going research on topics at the intersection between science, technology, and society (STS) in the 21st century. Our virtual seminars are hosted via Zoom and live-streamed via our social media.
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