History Center Events
Spring 2024 Nursing History Forums
Randolph Award Lecture
"Unearthing Black Midwifery Stories in Virginia"
Linda Janet Holmes
April 16, 2024, 12 - 1 p.m.
McLeod Hall, Room 5060 and on Zoom
Lunch provided
Ms. Holmes will present key findings from her interviews with midwife descendants, mothers, doulas and contemporary health-care providers who recognize the contributions of historic Black midwifery care in Charlottesville and in surrounding communities. Reasons for continuing Black midwifery traditions also will be discussed.
Linda Jan
et Holmes is the 2024 recipient of the Agnes Dillon Randolph Award for her outstanding scholarship documenting the experiences, knowledge, and practices of Black midwives in the U.S. and across the African diaspora. A writer, independent scholar, and long-time women's health activist, Holmes is the author of Safe in a Midwife's Hands: Birthing Traditions from Africa to the American South (Ohio State University Press, 2023) and co-author of Listen to Me Good: The Story of an Alabama Midwife, with Margaret Charles Smith (Ohio State University Press, 1996). Her other books include A Joyous Revolt: Toni Cade Bambara, Writer and Activist (Praeger, 2014) and the anthology Savoring the Salt: The Legacy of Toni Cade Bambara (Temple University Press, 2007).
For a recording of any of these talks, please contact the Bjoring Center's program manager.
"Neither the Colonizer Nor the Colonized: Thai Nursing Students in the Philippines and New England, 1920-1931" by Christine N. Peralta, PhD, recipient of the Bjoring Center's 30th Anniversary Research Fellowship (March 2024)
“Filling the Unforgiving Minute with Sixty Seconds’ Worth of Distance Run: Barbara Fassbinder, Nursing, and AIDS in the U.S., 1986-1991” by Karissa Haugeberg, PhD (February 2024)
"Narrating a Life of Care: Hindsight and Challenges of Interpretation in the Study of Religion and Health" by Angela Xia, PhD candidate in religious studies, recipient of the Bjoring Center's 30th Anniversary Research Fellowship (November 2023)
"Gay Nurses/Straight Health Care: Toward a Queer History of Nursing" by Jess Dillard-Wright, PhD, MA, RN, CNM, recipient of the Barbara Brodie Nursing History Fellowship (November 2023)
"Hospital City, Health Care Nation: Race, Capital, and the Costs of American Health Care" by Guian McKee, PhD (September 2023)
"History and Memory of Filipino Nurses in U.S. Health-Care Delivery" by Catherine Ceniza Choy, PhD, recipient of the 2023 Agnes Dillon Randolph Award (April 2023)
"Medicine of Care: Oral History of Nurse Practitioners in New York State" by Morag Martin, PhD (March 2023)
"Black Nurses’ Silent Struggle to Integrate Hospital Nursing in the North, 1950-1970" by Hafeeza Anchrum, PhD, RN (Nov. 2022)
"Understanding the Experiences of Male Nurse Practitioners, 1980 to Present" by Marcus D. Henderson, MSN, RN (Oct. 2022)
"A Virtual Roundtable on the History of Black Midwives" with Wangui Muigai, PhD; Michelle Drew, DNP, MPH, CNM, FNP-C, C-EFM; and Gertrude Fraser, PhD (Feb. 2022). Download the History of Black Midwives Roundtable transcript.
Program: "Ancient Wisdom, Resistance and Reclamation: The Historical Contributions of African and African American Midwives 1619 to the Present" - by Michelle Drew, DNP, MPH, CNM, FNP-C, C-EFM
"Trust, Training, and Tradition: Black Midwifery in the Early 20th Century" - by Wangui Muigai, PhD
"African American Doulas: Carrying on the Tradition, Navigating Spaces of Care and Exploitation" - by Gertrude J. Fraser, PhD
View the 2022 Randolph Conference Program and 2022 Randolph Conference Program Abstracts from our international event, held virtually in March 2022.
Black Midwives: A History Forum
