Gretchen Sisson: Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood

Room: Society, Sciences & Technology, 2nd Floor

Over the course of a decade, sociologist Gretchen Sisson interviewed over a hundred women who have relinquished their children for domestic adoption. Her new book Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood is the powerful culmination of her research, a gripping account of adoption during the age of Roe v. Wade. In her talk, Gretchen will share the complicated history and consequences of adoption while examining the powerful forces shaping American motherhood, including poverty, religion, and politics.

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.