Black Women's Bodies: Embodiment at the Intersection of Race and Pregnancy in Britain

Feminist anthropologists remind us of the centrality of reproduction to social life (Rapp, 2001:470). The understudied processes and practices of pregnancy, contraception, abortion and childrearing have become dominant sites of study for anthropologists seeking to locate the sources and formation of stratification and hierarchy among and within social groups. This proposal presents a novel question within an anthropology of reproduction. I ask: how is the embodied experience of pregnancy for black women shaped at the intersection of welfare and race in Britain?

My research intends to investigate the intersection of welfare and race through attention to embodiment. Through this lens, it offers the potential for a novel ethnographic investigation into the formation and effects of motherhood as a social identity, authoritative knowledge and free healthcare on the bodies of black women living in Britain. I privilege black British women and their epistemological experience to build conceptually upon several theoretical and analytical foundations in the anthropology of reproduction and the welfare state.