BIRTH RITES COLLECTION SUMMER SCHOOL 2026 ONLINE
The world’s only con­tem­po­rary art col­lec­tion ded­i­cat­ed to child­birth invites you to a pro­gramme of lec­tures, work­shops, sem­i­nars and one-to-one tutorials.

This Year’s theme: REPRODUCTION AND THE STATE

How do artists con­test dom­i­nant nar­ra­tives of birth and mater­ni­ty? Whose bod­ies are heard, treat­ed and believed in mater­nal health­care? How do states instru­men­talise repro­duc­tion through pol­i­cy, imagery and ide­ol­o­gy? How can the mater­nal become a site of resis­tance and reimagining?

Led by artist and BRC Cura­tor Dr Helen Knowles and artist Dr Leni Dothan, the course brings you into dia­logue with the col­lec­tion, this year’s themes, and your own prac­tice. You’ll leave with bespoke visu­al, tex­tu­al, audi­to­ry, pho­to­graph­ic, filmic or per­for­ma­tive work to car­ry into your future practice.

This year, par­tic­i­pants gain exclu­sive access to a curat­ed selec­tion of works from the col­lec­tion not ordi­nar­i­ly avail­able to the pub­lic, pre­sent­ed in a ded­i­cat­ed online space. Work­shops explore the aes­thet­ic, eth­i­cal, polit­i­cal and visu­al dis­cours­es of birth through text, film and per­for­mance. Lec­tures from lead­ing artists and aca­d­e­mics open up the fol­low­ing themes:

-Insti­tu­tion­al bias in mater­nal health­care — race, class, and the pol­i­tics of care

-Prona­tal­ism, bor­der regimes, and repro­duc­tive justice

-The Collection’s impact on fem­i­nist art and the visu­al his­to­ry of birth

-Cen­sor­ship, ethics and the law around art­works on birth

-How the Col­lec­tion can shape prac­tice and pol­i­cy in mid­wifery, med­i­cine and education

Open to mid­wives, artists, aca­d­e­mics, cura­tors, medics, health pro­fes­sion­als, art his­to­ri­ans, pol­i­cy advi­sors — and any­one engaged with child­birth through the lens of art.

Our 2026 Keynote Speak­er is the renowned video artist, CANDICE BREITZ. Oth­er artists invit­ed to speak are: Sarah Sud­hoff, RAYVENN SHALEIGHA D’CLARK, Andrea Kho­ra, Helen Knowles and Leni Dothan, with more announced soon.

Any ques­tions? Read our FAQs for more infor­ma­tion about the BRC Sum­mer School

Five-Week Course (Online):
Dates: Wednes­days, 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM BST July 1,8,15, 22, 29 & Sat­ur­day 18, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM BST. All lec­tures, work­shops, and dis­cus­sions will take place online. Cost: 600 GBP per per­son 450 GBP Con­ces­sion Rate.

A 100GBP deposit is required to secure a place for the course. There is one bur­sary place avail­able. For more infor­ma­tion please email helen@birthrites.org.uk or check out our web­site sum­mer school page: https://www.birthritescollection.org.uk/summerschool2026

Perma­link

Call for Papers
Work­shop: De-/val­u­a­tions in paid care work
Uni­ver­si­ty of Lucerne, Depart­ment of Social and Cul­tur­al Anthropology
July 2–3, 2026
Orga­nized by Mad­huri­la­ta Basu, Jürg Büh­ler, San­dra Bärnreuther

Research on care work has often paid atten­tion to ques­tions of val­ue and val­u­a­tion: be it the
descrip­tion of care work as a labor of love, empa­thy, and con­cern (Rose 1983), as a source of
sur­plus val­ue (Fed­eri­ci 2012), as a com­mod­i­ty embed­ded in the glob­al econ­o­my (Hochschild
2000, Par­reñas 2000), or as a foun­da­tion for devel­op­ing alter­na­tive eth­i­cal and polit­i­cal theories
(Gilli­gan 1982; Nod­dings 1984; Held 2006, Tron­to 1993). While some stud­ies examine
dif­fer­ent under­stand­ings and prac­tices of good care along­side the ten­sions and contradictions
they pro­duce (Klein­man 2009, Smith-Mor­ris 2018, Steven­son 2014), much of the research on
paid care work empha­sizes issues of deskilling, deval­u­a­tion, and the extrac­tion of val­ue (e.g.,
John and Wich­terich 2023). The gen­der­ing of care work as female, and its links to domestic
and bod­i­ly labor, are shown to be cru­cial in under­stand­ing the exploita­tion and marginalization
of care work­ers, although there are notable dif­fer­ences across var­i­ous groups (Cohen and
Wolkowitz 2018, Ray 2019).

The val­u­a­tion and deval­u­a­tion of care occur through com­plex process­es, includ­ing ongoing
nego­ti­a­tions with larg­er eco­nom­ic and soci­etal struc­tures. Giv­en the high­ly ambigu­ous nature
of these val­u­a­tions, it is easy to over­look that care work­ers them­selves assign mean­ing, moral
sig­nif­i­cance, and val­ue to their work, often in ways that may dif­fer from pop­u­lar and scholarly
descrip­tions and assess­ments. Under­stand­ing these self-per­cep­tions is essen­tial, even though
care work­ers’ voic­es often remain unheard. Trac­ing intri­cate process­es of val­u­a­tion and
deval­u­a­tion by care work­ers and oth­er actors involved in paid care work is there­fore cru­cial for
under­stand­ing how care work is expe­ri­enced and shaped over time.

This work­shop aims to exam­ine val­u­a­tion prac­tices relat­ed to paid care work, empha­siz­ing the
per­spec­tives of var­i­ous actors, includ­ing care­givers, mem­bers of care insti­tu­tions (such as
man­age­ment, edu­ca­tors, and doc­tors), and care recip­i­ents. We fol­low Dus­sauge et al. (2015) in
view­ing value(s) not as “pre­fixed entit[ies] which explain […] action” but treat “the genesis,
artic­u­la­tion, dis­pute, and set­tling of what comes to count as val­ues as mat­ters for empirical
inves­ti­ga­tion and expla­na­tion” (ibid., 6). Through an in-depth analy­sis of the mak­ing of values
in care prac­tice, we seek to under­stand process­es of de-/val­u­a­tion of care work, skills, degrees,
health, and work­ers them­selves. Impor­tant­ly, pow­er is not absent in this approach; to the
con­trary: “By study­ing the mak­ing of val­ues tra­di­tion­al­ly seen as belong­ing to different
domains we can see pow­er strug­gles over which val­ues are to be dom­i­nant, the mak­ing of
bound­aries between val­ues (that may become made as sep­a­rate), and when dif­fer­ent val­ues are
made com­men­su­rable” (ibid.). The work­shop high­lights the con­flict­ing con­cerns and stakes
involved in pro­vid­ing care, as well as how val­u­a­tions are active­ly pro­duced, trans­formed, and
maintained.

We invite ethno­graph­i­cal­ly ori­ent­ed schol­ars study­ing paid care work across var­i­ous fields and
regions to join this work­shop. Pos­si­ble top­ics for papers might include: dis­cours­es of de-
/valuation in edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions and work­places; ratio­nal­iza­tions of dif­fer­ent labor
regimes; rela­tion­ships among dif­fer­ent groups of care work­ers and oth­er pro­fes­sion­al groups;
changes in work­force com­po­si­tion; labor strug­gles and union­iza­tion efforts; the introduction
of new tech­nolo­gies; or care work and the plat­form economy.

Please send your abstract (up to 500 words) and author biog­ra­phy (up to 100 words) by
Jan­u­ary 16, 2026, to madhurilata.basu@unilu.ch. We may have lim­it­ed funds to sup­port travel
and accom­mo­da­tion costs for a few par­tic­i­pants. Please indi­cate in your appli­ca­tion if you
require finan­cial assistance.

Perma­link

Call for Papers
Work­shop: De-/val­u­a­tions in paid care work
Uni­ver­si­ty of Lucerne, Depart­ment of Social and Cul­tur­al Anthropology

July 2–3, 2026

Orga­nized by Mad­huri­la­ta Basu, Jürg Büh­ler, San­dra Bärnreuther

Research on care work has often paid atten­tion to ques­tions of val­ue and val­u­a­tion: be it the descrip­tion of care work as a labor of love, empa­thy, and con­cern (Rose 1983), as a source of sur­plus val­ue (Fed­eri­ci 2012), as a com­mod­i­ty embed­ded in the glob­al econ­o­my (Hochschild 2000, Par­reñas 2000), or as a foun­da­tion for devel­op­ing alter­na­tive eth­i­cal and polit­i­cal the­o­ries (Gilli­gan 1982; Nod­dings 1984; Held 2006, Tron­to 1993). While some stud­ies exam­ine dif­fer­ent under­stand­ings and prac­tices of good care along­side the ten­sions and con­tra­dic­tions they pro­duce (Klein­man 2009, Smith-Mor­ris 2018, Steven­son 2014), much of the research on paid care work empha­sizes issues of deskilling, deval­u­a­tion, and the extrac­tion of val­ue (e.g., John and Wich­terich 2023). The gen­der­ing of care work as female, and its links to domes­tic and bod­i­ly labor, are shown to be cru­cial in under­stand­ing the exploita­tion and mar­gin­al­iza­tion of care work­ers, although there are notable dif­fer­ences across var­i­ous groups (Cohen and Wolkowitz 2018, Ray 2019).

The val­u­a­tion and deval­u­a­tion of care occur through com­plex process­es, includ­ing ongo­ing nego­ti­a­tions with larg­er eco­nom­ic and soci­etal struc­tures. Giv­en the high­ly ambigu­ous nature of these val­u­a­tions, it is easy to over­look that care work­ers them­selves assign mean­ing, moral sig­nif­i­cance, and val­ue to their work, often in ways that may dif­fer from pop­u­lar and schol­ar­ly descrip­tions and assess­ments. Under­stand­ing these self-per­cep­tions is essen­tial, even though care work­ers’ voic­es often remain unheard. Trac­ing intri­cate process­es of val­u­a­tion and deval­u­a­tion by care work­ers and oth­er actors involved in paid care work is there­fore cru­cial for under­stand­ing how care work is expe­ri­enced and shaped over time.

This work­shop aims to exam­ine val­u­a­tion prac­tices relat­ed to paid care work, empha­siz­ing the per­spec­tives of var­i­ous actors, includ­ing care­givers, mem­bers of care insti­tu­tions (such as man­age­ment, edu­ca­tors, and doc­tors), and care recip­i­ents. We fol­low Dus­sauge et al. (2015) in view­ing value(s) not as “pre­fixed entit[ies] which explain […] action” but treat “the gen­e­sis, artic­u­la­tion, dis­pute, and set­tling of what comes to count as val­ues as mat­ters for empir­i­cal inves­ti­ga­tion and expla­na­tion” (ibid., 6). Through an in-depth analy­sis of the mak­ing of val­ues in care prac­tice, we seek to under­stand process­es of de-/val­u­a­tion of care work, skills, degrees, health, and work­ers them­selves. Impor­tant­ly, pow­er is not absent in this approach; to the con­trary: “By study­ing the mak­ing of val­ues tra­di­tion­al­ly seen as belong­ing to dif­fer­ent domains we can see pow­er strug­gles over which val­ues are to be dom­i­nant, the mak­ing of bound­aries between val­ues (that may become made as sep­a­rate), and when dif­fer­ent val­ues are made com­men­su­rable” (ibid.). The work­shop high­lights the con­flict­ing con­cerns and stakes involved in pro­vid­ing care, as well as how val­u­a­tions are active­ly pro­duced, trans­formed, and maintained.

We invite ethno­graph­i­cal­ly ori­ent­ed schol­ars study­ing paid care work across var­i­ous fields and regions to join this work­shop. Pos­si­ble top­ics for papers might include: dis­cours­es of de-/val­u­a­tion in edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions and work­places; ratio­nal­iza­tions of dif­fer­ent labor regimes; rela­tion­ships among dif­fer­ent groups of care work­ers and oth­er pro­fes­sion­al groups; changes in work­force com­po­si­tion; labor strug­gles and union­iza­tion efforts; the intro­duc­tion of new tech­nolo­gies; or care work and the plat­form economy.

Please send your abstract (up to 500 words) and author biog­ra­phy (up to 100 words) by Jan­u­ary 16, 2026, to madhurilata.basu@unilu.ch. We may have lim­it­ed funds to sup­port trav­el and accom­mo­da­tion costs for a few par­tic­i­pants. Please indi­cate in your appli­ca­tion if you require finan­cial assistance.

Perma­link