This interdisciplinary and international network for researchers working on fertility, pregnancy and childbirth grew out of the Perceptions of Pregnancy: From the Medieval to the Modern conference, held at the University of Hertfordshire from 16-18 July 2014. The network and associated blog was founded by Dr Jennifer Evans and Dr Ciara Meehan of the School of Humanities, University of Hertfordshire.

The network team are

Directors:

Jennifer Evans and Leanne Calvert

Associate Directors:

Chelsea Phillips, Marystella Ramirez Guerra and Sarah Fox

Aim

The aim of the network — as was the case with the conference — is to reach beyond boundaries and borders, and to facilitate an international and interdisciplinary conversation on pregnancy and its associated bodily and emotional experiences from the earliest times to the present day. The broad timespan allows for a careful consideration of continuities and changes throughout history.

Speakers at the conference came from institutions in Britain, Ireland, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Poland, Canada and the United States.  We heard from historians, midwives, curators, political geographers, literary critics and scholars working on visual culture. We hope to replicate this broad geographic span and mix of expertise with the network. Building on the success of the conference, we re-designed the original conference blog to create this space for such researchers to engage, exchange ideas and highlight their work.

Join the Network

If you are interested in joining the network, please email perceptionsofpregnancy@gmail.com and we will add you to the mailing list. Once-weekly emails will include details of events, calls for papers, new publications and other items of interest. The interdisciplinary network is open to anybody working on or with a general interest in the broad field of fertility, pregnancy and childbirth.

Share Your News with the Network

We are keen to facilitate conversations. If you have an event, news item or call for papers that will be of interest to our network of researchers, contact us and we will post it. Items for inclusion in our weekly email, which is circulated on Mondays, should be submitted by Saturday evening at the latest.

Write for the Blog

We welcome short-pieces of around 700-900 words. If you would like to contribute a column to the blog, please read the submission guidelines found here.

Contact Us

Email us at perceptionsofpregnancy@gmail.com

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