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“A Womb of My Own”: Women’s Bodies and Medicine in Early Modern England
Full text linkThis essay recontextualizes United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s views on abortion within a broader system of early modern (c. 1450-1700) reproductive knowledge. By focusing on printed medical texts as well as manuscript books that offer recipes for medicines to treat reproductive issues, the essay contends that Alito’s Majority Opinion, which relies on the legal scholar Sir Matthew Hale in the case of Dobbs V. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, leaves out a breadth of voices, specifically those of women. Manuscript recipe books for medicinal treatments demonstrate women’s limited but essential control over their own health and well-being. The bodily autonomy demonstrated by these texts has important implications for reproductive care, including abortion. The existence of these manuscript books implies that many early modern women had access to medical recipes that gave them a measure of control over their reproductive health. The manuscript evidence suggests a different attitude towards reproductive care than that identified in Hale’s print record. This key difference between print and manuscript sources allows for a more nuanced view of the time period and illustrates the need for the comparative use of print and manuscript sources in both scholarly, activist, and legal work
When Your Phone Knows You’re Pregnant Even If You Don’t: Period Tracking Applications and Threats to Privacy
Full text linkIn everyday life, menstruating persons around the world use different applications to help them monitor menstruation or fertile days to plan or to avoid conception, as well as to monitor their health condition. Much to users’ dismay, in recent years disturbing information appeared in the media about the alleged disclosure of information collected by menstrual monitoring applications to third parties for commercial purposes. The mechanism of such a procedure seems to be relatively simple—if the user of the application does not enter information about the onset of menstruation on the date set by the application as a start date, after a few days a user may notice an increased number of advertisements for products related to pregnancy and motherhood on the devices it uses. This paper examines whether data collected by period tracking applications may be considered as data concerning health which is covered under privacy laws (the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation is the current gold standard for privacy legislation), and if this data should be treated under law. Additionally, the authors contend that collecting information on menstruation cycles and sharing such data (either with private entities or public bodies) infringes upon the right to privacy, intimacy, and reproductive autonomy of users of period tracking applications
Menstruation and Menopause as Reproductive Justice Issues: Feminist Reflections on Activism, Research, and Policy from the Global Movement’s Scottish Hub
Full text linkThis feminist reflection asserts that menstruation and menopause are elements of reproductive justice that are often overlooked due to menstrual taboos. Drawing on their experiences in Scotland, which has recently been a global hub for menstrual activism, policymaking, and research, the authors identify salient current challenges in menstrual and menopausal justice. They detail how these were met in Scotland and what work remains outstanding, and they summarize recommendations for future policymaking, research, and activism
Setting the Record Straight: Recording the Global Contribution to Education Research of Panamanian Scholar Etilvia Arjona Chang
Full text linkAs documented extensively, the academic publications and accomplishments of women scholars—particularly those from developing regions—are underrepresented in global and national literature, databases, and indices. This feminist biographical case study explores and makes visible the life and work of Panamanian Dr. Etilvia Arjona Chang and her global contribution to education research. This article describes her earlier decades devoted to expanding and modernizing the translation and interpretation (T&I) discipline worldwide. It also examines her development of Panama’s first education research programs in later decades of her career and how her previous T&I experience provided the foundation for present-day Panamanian education research. This article presents her body of work along with its interdisciplinary theoretical and practical impact on multiple sub-disciplines. It positions the discussion within the historical context in which she lived, the prevailing realities governing education research at the time, and the sociopolitical environments where she worked. This study combines methodological elements of feminist biography, scholarly chronicle, and participant observation. It relies primarily on secondary research, supplemented with interviews of national and international key informants, as well as the author’s personal involvement in collaborative initiatives in this field. It contributes to national and global knowledge production on the evolution of education research and simultaneously highlights the contribution of women scholars, detailing challenges and triumphs particular to women in academia in different countries of the world.
El Resumen
Como se ha documentado ampliamente, las publicaciones y los logros académicos de las mujeres investigadoras, en particular las de regiones en desarrollo, están subrepresentadas en la literatura, bases de datos e índices nacionales e internacionales. Este estudio de caso biográfico feminista explora y visibiliza la vida y obra de la panameña Dra. Etilvia Arjona Chang y su contribución global a la investigación educativa. Este artículo describe sus décadas anteriores dedicadas a expandir y modernizar la disciplina de la traducción e interpretación (T&I) en todo el mundo. También examina el desarrollo de los primeros programas de investigación educativa en Panamá en las últimas décadas de su carrera y cómo su experiencia previa en T&I sentó las bases de la investigación educativa panameña actual. Este artículo presenta su obra y su impacto interdisciplinario, tanto teórico como práctico, en múltiples subdisciplinas. Sitúa la discusión dentro del contexto histórico en el que vivió, las realidades imperantes que regían la investigación educativa en ese momento, y los entornos sociopolíticos donde trabajó. Este estudio combina elementos metodológicos de la biografía feminista, la crónica académica y la observación participante. Se basa principalmente en investigación secundaria, complementada con entrevistas de informantes clave nacionales e internacionales, así como con la participación personal de la autora en iniciativas colaborativas en este campo. Contribuye a la producción de conocimiento nacional e internacional sobre la evolución de la investigación educativa y, a la vez, destaca la contribución de las mujeres académicas, detallando los desafíos y logros específicos de las mujeres en el ámbito académico en diferentes países del mundo
Reproductive and Sexual Autonomy in Hillary Jordan’s When She Woke
Full text linkThis paper uses the content analysis method and theory of reproductive politics to explore how state-sponsored reproductive policy criminalizes reproductive rights and erodes sexual autonomy in Hillary Jordan’s 2011 dystopian novel When She Woke. The novel depicts a future world in which abortion is criminalized and a genetic technology called “melachroming” is used by the federal government to violate the human rights of the main character, Hannah Payne. The fundamentalist interpretations of religion, coupled with political agenda and public policy, equate abortion with genocide, thus criminalizing the act and punishing women with a genetic alternation of skin color. These actions violate the rehabilitation rights of the convicted, denounce civil rights, and force the sentenced to the life of a social outcast. In the face of an unprecedented economic and reproductive crisis termed “The Great Scourge” in a near techno-future US, the state overturns the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which oppresses women like Hannah. Hannah faces retribution for her abortion in many ways: the genetic alteration of her skin color to be red, the live streaming of her captivity, the so-called Enlightenment Center’s recreation of her abortion scene in the style of horror to serve as propaganda, the continuing menace of the Fist of Christ vigilante group, and the violation of privacy/security (in the name of public safety) through implantation of nano-transmitters in her body to monitor her movements. Jordan’s depiction of the all-encompassing dehumanization of Hannah illustrates that women’s bodies are political. The criminalization of abortion is a form of political performativity that interprets women’s bodies as political anatomies. This study connects the novel’s dystopia to current feminist scholarship and activism about political systems of surveillance, control, and imprisonment that enact state power upon the bodies of women. These patriarchal systems colonize women’s bodies and wield immense power to reduce them to objects of sexual and political control
Guiding Tomorrow’s Critical Thinkers Through Structured AI Prompting
Full text linkAs I write this piece, I am not too far removed from the full-time doctoral student experience (conferred summer 2022) and live by the mantra “work smarter not harder.” Generative AI allows students to work smarter and brainstorm topics and ideas by asking the AI tool for definitions and key considerations. Research indicates that technology can support students in their academic writing process by serving as a multi-tasking assistant, virtual tutor, and digital peer, which enhances their learning experience (Ambrose et al., 2010). With generative AI, students can ask to clarify research questions or ideas and seek guidance on how to frame an argument. Technology tools support the development of critical thinking skills by presenting diverse viewpoints and encouraging deeper analysis (Brookfield, 2012). Research has also found that AI-assisted writing can improve the quality of academic writing by providing immediate feedback on grammar, style, and coherence (McNamara et al., 2015)
A New Melian Dialogue: Feminist Thinkers on Security Problems of the 21st Century
Full text linkThis essay critically engages with two important works on feminist foreign policy— Kristina Lunz’s The Future of Foreign Policy is Feminist and Cynthia Enloe’s Twelve Feminist Lessons of War—both of which offer useful insights for the evolving field of critical security studies. The authors of this essay have divergent backgrounds—a professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies and a defense scholar—which reflect a central tension in feminist foreign policy between feminist principles and the paradigms and exigencies of defense policy makers. Through a constructed conversation between its authors, this essay engages the arguments of Lunz and Enloe to ask how we can apply the ideas of feminist foreign policy to the immediate challenges that government officials and defense thinkers face on a daily basis. When confronted with immediate problems of violence and insecurity, we wonder whether, and in what ways, policymakers can learn from Enloe’s “feminist lessons of war,” and what they need on the ground to actually enact some of the key policy directives that are foundational to Lunz’s vision for feminist foreign policy. By discussing the ability of these texts to speak across audiences with competing interests, values, and worldviews, we emphasize the role of dialogue across difference in the balance between the ideal and the practical
