In "Birthing Black Mothers," published by @DukePress Black feminist theorist Dr. Jennifer C. Nash examines how the figure of the “Black mother” has become a powerful political category. “Mothering while Black” has become synonymous with crisis as well as a site of cultural interest, empathy, fascination, and support. Cast as suffering and traumatized by their proximity to Black death—especially through medical racism and state-sanctioned police violence—Black mothers are often rendered as one-dimensional symbols of tragic heroism. In contrast, Nash examines Black mothers’ self-representations and public performances of motherhood—including Black doulas and breastfeeding advocates alongside celebrities such as Beyoncé, Serena Williams, and Michelle Obama—that are not rooted in loss. Through cultural critique and in-depth interviews, Nash acknowledges the complexities of Black motherhood outside its use as political currency. Throughout, Nash imagines a Black feminist project that refuses the lure of locating the precarity of Black life in women and instead invites readers to theorize, organize, and dream into being new modes of Black motherhood.

FACULTY BOOKWATCH PANELISTS:
Moon Charania, Associate Professor of International Studies, Spelman College
Jasmine Cobb, Professor of African and African American Studies, Duke University
Deirdre Cooper Owens, Associate Professor of History, University of Connecticut, Storrs
Wylin D. Wilson, Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke Divinity School
Joseph Richard Winters II, Alexander F. Hehmeyer Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Duke University

MODERATOR:
Nikki Lane, Assistant Professor, Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, Duke University

Jointly hosted by the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute and Duke University Libraries since 2004, Faculty Bookwatch is an event series that promotes interdisciplinary conversations on notable recent books by Duke faculty in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Each program brings together a panel of distinguished colleagues from Duke and other universities, giving brief comments on the significance and impact of the featured book. The author also participates in the panel and the following Q&A.

This event was sponsored by the Publishing Humanities Initiative (PHI), the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University (FHI), Duke University Libraries and is co-sponsored by the departments of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, African & African American Studies, and the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History in Medicine.

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