(See English below)

Föstudaginn 12. september flytur Ruth DeSouza, dósent í hjúkrunarfræði við Monash Háskóla í Ástralíu, fyrirlestur sem ber heitið „„Ég varð að halda öllum valmöguleikum opnum“. Nýfrjálshyggjan og móðurhlutverkið“ [““I had to keep my options open”: White mothers and neoliberal maternity”]. Fyrirlesturinn fer fram á ensku í fyrirlestrasal Þjóðminjasafnsins, kl. 12:00-13:00. Sjá lýsingu á erindinu á ensku hér að neðan.

Fyrirlesturinn er haldinn í samstarfi við Þjóðminjasafn Íslands.

Öll velkomin!

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On Friday 12 September 2014, Dr Ruth DeSouza, a Senior Lecturer and Co-ordinator of the Bachelor of Nursing (Berwick) and Director of Community Engagement for the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Monash University in Victoria, Australia, will give a public talk entitled ““I had to keep my options open”: White mothers and neoliberal maternity” The lecture will be held at the National Museum, Lecture Hall, at 12:00-13:00.

Abstract:
Contemporary midwifery draws from liberal feminism the concept of “choice” as a marker of maternal agency, distinguishing it from medicalised maternity, a patriarchal process controlled by male doctors and supported by female nurses. However, critiques of neoliberalism locate “informed choice”, “empowerment” and “partnership” as discourses held by specific capitalist subjectivities that are unevenly distributed among class, race, and sex lines. This seminar extends this argument through analysis of focus group with white migrant mothers in Aotearoa New Zealand. The paper argues that attention to the restricted discourses of choice-as-empowerment illuminates how settler-colonial maternal healthcare systems are limited in their universality, failing to escape cultural and class-based assumptions that empower some mothers at the expense of others. The paper concludes that critical healthcare analysis and methodologies such as cultural safety provide tools for the transformation of these discourses.

About the speaker:
Dr Ruth DeSouza is a Senior Lecturer and Co-ordinator of the Bachelor of Nursing (Berwick) and Director of Community Engagement for the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Monash University in Victoria, Australia. Ruth’s current research examines power relations between nurses, the culture of care and racialised women who receive care. A mental health nurse by background, her research also explores cultural safety, social determinants of health and migrant and refugee health.