Albany Area NOW to Host Author Linda L. Layne

ALBANY, NY (09/11/2007)(readMedia)-- Albany Area NOW will host Author Linda L. Layne on September 12 (Wednesday) at 7:00 pm, at the Women's Building, in Albany, NY

Linda L. Layne is the Hale Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.

She received her Ph.D. in 1986 in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies from Princeton University. That work resulted in Home and Homeland: The Dialogics of Tribal and National Identities (Princeton University Press 1994) and a collection on Elections in the Middle East (Westview 1987).

Layne's research interests changed abruptly in January 1989 when her first pregnancy ended in miscarriage at 13 weeks gestation. Since that time she has used the lens of anthropology to explain why American women are so ill-prepared for miscarriage, stillbirth, or early infant death and why the feminist movement has not fully embraced this important women's health issue. She is now working to develop a women's health approach to child-bearing loss through a 10-part, award-winning television series, "Motherhood Lost: Conversations" co-produced with Heather Bailey at George Mason Television.

Layne is author of Motherhood Lost: A Feminist Perspective on Pregnancy Loss (Routledge 2003); and the Childbearing Loss chapter of the new edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves (2005), and editor of Consuming Motherhood (with Taylor and Wozniak) Rutgers University Press 2004 (Winner of the Council on Anthropology of Reproduction's New Volume Book Prize), and Transformative Motherhood: On Giving and Getting in a Consumer Culture New York University Press 1999 (Winner of the Council on Anthropology of Reproduction's Enduring Influence Book Prize) and is currently working on a volume on Feminist Technology with (Sharra Vostral and Kate Boyer).

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