African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
225 p., Whitmarsh describes how he followed a team of genetic researchers to Barbados, where he did fieldwork among not only the researchers but also government officials, medical professionals, and the families being tested. Whitmarsh reveals how state officials and medical professionals make the international biomedical research part of state care, bundling together categories of disease populations, biological race, and asthma. He points to state and industry perceptions of mothers as medical caretakers in genetic research that proves to be inextricable from contested practices around nation, race, and family.
The findings of a questionnaire survey distributed to 153 female university students in Barbados and Jamaica in 2008 reveal the attitudes to diverse female sexualities in the Caribbean. The participants in the survey discussed changing beliefs about sexuality in Caribbean society. The findings show that slowly, as a consequence of globalization and the mass media, people are increasingly open-minded about sex. Women are confidently expressing and increasingly asserting themselves as equal partners. There is greater debate in Caribbean society about female same-sex relationships, and deeper awareness of sexual harassment is evident. Nevertheless, for some respondents, the same degrading notions of women as sex objects and promiscuous beings continue to exist.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
176 p, Contents: I. Codrington College and Plantations -- II. Field Hands and Artisans -- III. Discipline -- IV. Villages and Villagers -- V. African Recruitment -- VI. Anatomy of Decline -- VII. Hired Gangs and Seasoned Recruits -- VIII. Chattel Christians, 1710-1768 -- IX. Humanitarian Policy, 1760-1793 -- X. Amelioration, 1793-1823 -- XI. The Society and the Abolitionists, 1823-1830 -- XII. Emancipation and Apprenticeship, 1831-1838 -- XIII. Conclusion
Looks at Barbados's experience of abortion law reform undertaken in the 1980s. The movement was led by then Cabinet Minister and lawyer Billie Miller. Documents the nuances, important moments, key strategies and major players in the reform movement, and highlights the critical role that Miller played in getting the Medical Termination Act passed in 1983. Background information on the situation of Barbadian women and the nature of parliamentary governance at that time is also addressed in order to give context to the politics surrounding the issue.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
144 p., Features interviews with government and health agency officials, HIV/AIDS activists, and residents of the country's capital, Bridgetown. Using these and records from local libraries and archives, Murray unravels the complex historical, social, political, and economic forces through which same-sex desire, identity, and prejudice are produced and valued in this Caribbean nation-state. Illustrates the influence of both Euro-American and regional gender and sexual politics on sexual diversity in Barbados.
