[URBANTH-L]Call for Articles: Other Engenderings (Tsantsa)

[Angela Jancius]

Call for Papers ­ Dossier TSANTSA 12/2007


TSANTSA, the review of the Swiss Anthropological Society, invites papers for
its 12/2007 edition

on the special theme:
 
Other engenderings: pregnancy in situations of social and physiological disorder

deadline for abstracts: 21.6.2006

How is pregnancy lived for women with serious illnesses or HIV infection?
What happens after a prenatal diagnosis of fetal malformation or genetic
illness? How do women and society deal with << illegitimate >> pregnancies or
those resulting from rape or incestuous relationships?  How can we approach
the question of alcoholic, abused or handicapped future mothers?

Despite much recent work in the anthropology of reproduction, particularly
in relation to medically assisted reproductive technologies, few researchers
in the social sciences have explored the hidden sides of pregnancy.  The
greater part of the existing literature deals with sterility, abortion and
perinatal death, as if non-birth were the only possible contrary to
<< perfect >> birth.

And yet, pregnancy and birth in situations of physiological disorder or in
violation of established social norms are part of life.  Both cases provide
privileged terrain for the analysis of the practices and representations
underlying the symbolic construction of personhood, and open new ways to ask
what makes society.

With this Call for Papers, Tsantsa seeks contributions on one or more of
these themes, based on research in either hemisphere.  We seek articles from
anthropologists, historians or sociologists that examine the social, ritual,
medical or legal responses to these marginal pregnancies.  We encourage work
based on empirical research that integrates the experiences not only of
mothers but also attitudes of fathers and the familial, medical and social
surroundings in which these pregnancies unfold. Priority will be given to
those articles that demonstrate what a study of marginal pregnancies can
bring to current debates in the social sciences and in the field of public
health.

Paper proposals of 300-500 words together with a short biographical note
should be sent to

Saskia Walentowitz (walentowitz at anthro.unibe.ch).


The deadline for proposals is June 21st, 2006.

The final versions of the paper are due at the 15th of October 2006.

For further information regarding TSANTSA as well as for more details on our
publishing policy, please go to: http://www.seg-sse.ch/.

Thank you for sending this call to potential contributors!