Alicia Bonaparte
Professor of Sociology
With Pitzer Since: 2008
Field Group: Sociology
Campus email: [email protected]
Phone: Contact Professor
Office Hours: See Faculty Directory
Educational Background
MA, PhD, Vanderbilt University
BA, Spelman College
Research Interests
African American sociology; medical sociology; hierarchical system within healthcare for sociological classes; reproductive health disparities, birthing and midwifery; Granny midwifery; teenage pregnancy and infant mortality; public policy in healthcare; immigrant healthcare; consumer health experiences; healthcare professionals and consumer relationships; female juvenile delinquency; gender in American society
Recent Courses
Sociology and Its View of the World (SOC1)
African American Social Theory (SOC109)
Sociology of Health and Medicine (SOC122)
Men and Women in American Society (SOC157)
Internship: Sociology of Health and Medicine (SOC170)
Selected Publications
Bonaparte, Alicia D. 2014. “Male Claims of Authoritative Knowledge: Physicians’ Discourse for Regulation of Granny Midwives in South Carolina” Journal of Historical Sociology. (Vol. 26, issue 4).
Bonaparte, Alicia D. 2014. “The Satisfactory Midwife Bag: Midwifery Regulation in South Carolina, Past and Present Considerations”. Social Science History. (Winter, Vol. 38).
Oparah, J. Chinyere and Alicia D. Bonaparte (eds). (October, 2015). Birthing Justice: The Politics of Black Women, Pregnancy, and Childbirth. (Paradigm Press).
Bonaparte, Alicia D. “Black Midwives and Birthing Justice”. Feminist Magazine Radio. Air date: Nov. 5, 2013 at 3:30pm.
Bonaparte, Alicia D. and Rhonda Ragsdale “The History of Sexism in U.S. Reproductive Healthcare”. Co-hosted Twitter Scholar chat. February 16, 2013.
“Reproductive Health Matters: Maternal Health Disparities and the Sociological Perspective” (in progress). With Christine Morton.
Labors of Birthing Work: The Persecution and Prosecution of Granny Midwives in South Carolina, 1900-1940 (book manuscript).
Interviewed in “Is It True that White Youth Violence is Premeditated and Black Youth Violence is Random?” USARISEUp.com, November 16, 2010.
“My Neighborhood Makes Me Sick,” Urban Profile, August 4, 2010.
“Truth vs. Lies of Teen Pregnancy and Sexual Intimacy,” Urban Profile, June 8, 2010.
“Interested in Being a Doctor? You are WANTED…” Urban Profile, May 23, 2010.
Reviewed War on the Family: Mothers in Prison and the Families They Leave Behind by Renny Golden, in Feminist Teacher, vol. 17, no.3 (2007).
Selected Conferences, Invited Talks and Public Commentary
“Contraceptive Choices? How Healthcare Practitioners Motivate Sexual Health Decision-making”. Paper presented February 9, 2014 at the Sociologists for Women in Society Meeting, Nashville, TN.
“The Satisfactory Midwife Bag: Midwifery Regulation in South Carolina, Past and Present Considerations”. Paper presented on August 10, 2013 at the American Sociological Association Meeting, New York, New York.
Bonaparte, Alicia D. “Contraceptive choices? How Chicana Teen Moms Navigate Sexual Health with Practitioners”. Paper presented March 22, 2013 at the Pacific Sociological Association Meeting, Reno, Nevada.
“Reproductive Health Matters: Maternal Health Disparities and the Sociological Perspective,” paper presented at the Pacific Sociological Association Meeting, Seattle, WA, March 11, 2011. With Christine Morton.
Selected Grants, Awards, and Honors
Awarded a 2014 summer residency in Jamaica by NLS.
Nicholas R. Doman Fellowship in the Social Sciences, 2009.
Mellon Junior Faculty research award “Antenatal Clinics and Midwives: Cross-cultural Exploration of Midwifery in Barbados”
Additional Information
Curriculum Vitae
Video - Professor Alicia Bonaparte: Teaching Daring Students to be Thoughtful Citizens
