The Departments of Sociology, Women’s and Gender Studies, and the Carolina Consortium on Health, Inequalities, and Populations (CHIP) are co-sponsoring a talk by Dr. Gretchen Sisson (University of California, San Francisco) from 11am-12:30pm on Friday, April 4th, in Sloan 112.
With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, women’s choices drastically changed in a matter of moments. Adoption was presented as an alternative; the benevolent face to the anti-abortion movement. Both liberals and conservatives agree that adoption is “courageous” but neither side seems to consider the experiences of birth parents. Is adoption a valid alternative? What is adoption really like for the women who surrender their children? Celebrated sociologist Gretchen Sisson, Ph.D., explores these questions in her riveting and deeply researched book Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood. Over the span of two decades, Sisson conducted hundreds of in-depth interviews with women who have relinquished their children for domestic adoption. Her book is the powerful culmination of her research, a study of adoption that places birth parents firmly in the center.
Gretchen Sisson, Ph.D., is a qualitative sociologist studying abortion and adoption at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at University of California, San Francisco. Her research was cited in the Supreme Court’s dissent in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and has been covered in The Washington Post, The Nation, All Things Considered and Consider This, New York Magazine, VOX, and other outlets.
There will also be a thought-provoking author talk and book signing at All Good Books with Dr. Sisson in conversation with Dr. Annie Andrews, CEO and Founder of Their Future. Our Vote on Thursday, April 3, 2025 from 6:00–7:30 PM at All Good Books (734 Harden St, Columbia, SC). You can find more information about this event here: https://allgoodbooks.com/events/2100020250403
Dr. Annie Andrews is the Founder of Their Future PAC, a Senior Advisor at Everytown for Gun Safety, and Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C.