Sumud

Livia Wick is associate professor of anthropology in the Sociology, Anthropology, and Media Studies department at the American University of Beirut.

Wick offers a superb examination of childbirth stories by mothers, medical professionals, and midwives. Her book illuminates institutional structures, Palestinian political histories, and the need to narrate losses, love and intimacy saturated by daily experiences of military occupation and border closures.-- "Susan Slyomovics, University of California, Los Angeles" Wick's research brings a new dimension to the reader that is equally compelling and illustrates a more in-depth focus of Palestinian narratives and experiences that is very much overlooked.-- "Middle East Monitor" Ethnographically rich and insightful. . . . In addition to the engaging individual stories, the book includes important contributions on the history of Palestinian oral histories, the mapping of Palestinian health care institutions and movements, and the shifting history of hospital vs home births.-- "Rhoda Kanaaneh, author of Birthing the Nation: Strategies of Palestinian Women in Israel" Wick's nuanced ethnography of birth is a delight to read. The analysis is empirically grounded, theoretically informed, comparative in scope, and draws upon a rich trove of narratives as articulated by Palestinian women, midwives, and workers in the birthing infrastructure....A must-read for scholars and students of Palestine.-- "Lisa Taraki, Birzeit University"