Birthing the West

Name: Birthing the West
Start: 2024-05-10T17:00:00-07:00
Location: Sandpoint Library

Schedule

Fri May 10 2024 at 05:00 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

Sandpoint Library | Sandpoint, ID

Caring for Women, Caring for Communities
Come to the Sandpoint Library for a reception and presentation by author and professor, Dr. Jennifer Hill sponsored by Friends of the Library, The Pro-Voice Project & the Library.
5 PM
A reception providing a preview of The Pro-Voice Project’s Worth of a Woman, a traveling exhibit designed to elevate the conversation around reproductive healthcare in Bonner County—and beyond—on the one-year anniversary of having lost it. The display brings a historically difficult conversation into the public sphere to address a real-time problem, destigmatize its discussion, and envision a better future collaboratively. The eight-panel display goes up at Bluebird Bakery in Sandpoint on May 20, but the reception—replete with light snacks and beverages—offers an early look.
5:30 PM
Author and professor, Dr. Jennifer Hill, will present her research documenting the hidden history of childbirth and reproduction. Based on innovative research methods that reveal detailed healthcare practices in the American West of the early 1900s, Hill diagrams the impacts of reproductive care for communities both historically and into the present. With a nod to the efforts of organizers in the woman-centric practice of childbirth across the region, Hill’s conclusions speak to contemporary issues of access to healthcare and the value of women throughout the life cycle.
About the Presenter:
Jennifer Hill is an Associate Teaching Professor at Montana State University with a PhD in American Studies and a passion for making the everyday realities of past peoples come alive. Her research and writing focus on childbirth, contraception, abortion, venereal disease, and healthcare in the American West – an area with a compelling reproductive history. Based on the belief that history is a powerful tool for understanding current controversies, Hill focuses on interpreting our shared human past in ways that inform contemporary reproductive issues. When she is not researching, writing, or teaching, she can be found trail running, gardening, kayaking, or eating.