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FUTURE KIN // The Queer Birth Project

by katieadmin

The second exhibition of the Queer Birth Project, FUTURE KIN, was displayed this fall at Galleri Urbane.

FUTURE KIN reflects on contemporary LGBTQ+ families, envisioning new forms of kinship as a love letter to future generations. This exhibition explores the often-overlooked diversity of queer family structures through a dynamic mix of hanging fringe, neon sculptures, an interactive soundscape, glass mobiles, and video art. Unlike conventional family trees, which often adhere to hierarchical and gender-normative structures, the artworks in FUTURE KIN present kinship as dynamic constellations. These constellations emphasize non-hierarchical, gender-inclusive relations, challenging assumptions of heterosexuality, monogamy, assimilation, and biological ties. Blending artistic innovation with sociological research, FUTURE KIN offers reflections on evolving forms of belonging.

This exhibition is the second installment of The Queer Birth Project, a collaborative initiative by transmedia artist Liss LaFleur and sociologist Katherine Sobering. Based on original research with LGBTQ+ families, this work re-envisions artist Judy Chicago’s Birth Project (1980–85) and promotes a radically inclusive view of childbirth, reproductive justice, and family in a post-Roe era.

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The Queer Birth Project at the Nasher Sculpture Center

by katieadmin

The inaugural exhibition of The Queer Birth Project, a collaborative arts and research-based project that promotes a radically inclusive view of pregnancy, birth, and family building, recently opened at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas.

In 1981, feminist artist Judy Chicago posed the question: How do women feel about all aspects of birth? In the resulting Birth Project, Chicago conducted an original survey and then collaborated with needleworkers to create a series of artwork that celebrated “the birth-giving capacity of women along with their creative spirit.” Her work was pathbreaking in highlighting the importance of visibility and representation in feminist practice. Yet it also reproduced universalistic and heteronormative understandings of pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood.

Forty years later, The Queer Birth Project revisits and expands upon this work by asking: How do queer people experience birth? Representations of motherhood and birth in western art and social science have long excluded the lives of lesbian women and gender nonconforming bodies. This project seeks to promote inclusion by sharing the birth experiences of queer (LGBTQ+) people in the United States.

Read more about the exhibition here.

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Recent article in Insight Crime

by katieadmin

Check out my new piece with Javier Auyero: “Narcops: How Police and Drug Dealers Collude in Argentina,” which was published this month in Insight Crime, a non-profit journalism and investigative organization specialized in organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean. You can also read it in Spanish here: “Polinarcos: La colusión entre policías y traficantes en Argentina.”

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New article in Qualitative Sociology: The Relational Production of Workplace Equality

by katieadmin

My most recent article, “The Relational Production of Workplace Equality: The Case of Worker-Recuperated Businesses in Argentina,” is now available Online First at Qualitative Sociology!

Work organizations are commonly studied as sites that produce and reproduce inequality. But we know much less about how organizations promote equality. This article examines efforts to broaden access to power, opportunity, and resources in Hotel Bauen, a worker-recuperated business that was converted from a privately-owned company into a worker-run cooperative. Drawing on extensive ethnographic and archival research, I analyze efforts to redesign and redefine work through collective decision-making, job rotation, and pay equity. The article concludes by identifying three mechanisms of equality—inclusion, opportunity distribution, and symbolic leveling—to theorize the relational production of workplace equality and complement the near-exclusive focus on inequality and its effects.

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New article in WOX: Watercooler democracy

by katieadmin

My most recent article, “Watercooler Democracy: Rumors and Transparency in a Cooperative Workplace” is now available at Work and Occupations!

This article examines how rumors impact democracy and transparency in a cooperative workplace. Although literature on rumors generally analyzes them as negative to workplace culture, the author argues that rumors constitute a critical aspect of democratic participation. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in a worker-recuperated business in Argentina, the author shows how members use rumors to incite deliberation, participate in decision-making, question organizational policy, and oversee managerial authority. Although informal communication at work can create uncertainty, confusion, and concerns about efficiency, the author finds that rumors can also increase worker influence, encourage organizational accountability, and ultimately protect against the consolidation of power.

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New blog post in Panoramas: Collusion and Cynicism

by katieadmin

On a warm evening in February 2013, residents in Arquitecto Tucci convened to discuss their concerns about their neighborhood. Located on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, the once working-class neighborhood had grown significantly in recent years through the expansion of informal settlements. Paved streets and sidewalks now transitioned into muddy dirt roads. In these areas—many of which were prone to flooding—newer residents constructed simple concrete houses, most of which lacked access to municipal services like electricity, water, sewers, and garbage pick-up.

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Read the full blog post in Panoramas.  You can also check out the article, “Collusion and Cynicism at the Urban Margins,” which was published in the Latin American Research Review in 2019.

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