Publications

If you are interested in article copies that are behind paywalls, please email me.

Books

A Miscarriage of Justice: Women’s Reproductive Lives and the Law in Early Twentieth-Century Brazil (Stanford University Press, 2020)

• 2021 Murdo J. MacLeod Book Prize, Latin American and Caribbean Section, Southern Historical Association (SHA)
• 2021 Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Reviews, American Library Association (ALA)

Edited Special Journal Issues

First editor with Diana Paton. “Intimate Politics: Fertility Control in a Global Historical Perspective.” Women’s History Review 30, no. 6 (2021): 881–1069.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

“Abortion Access in the Americas: A Hemispheric, Historical Approach.” Frontiers in Public Health–Public Health Policy 11 (2023): 1284737. Special Issue: Global Perspectives on the Health Inequities in Sexual, Reproductive, and Maternal Health Post Roe v. Wade.

“Rio de Janeiro Wet-Nursing Database: Enslaved and Free Women of Color in Rio de Janeiro, 1850.” Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation 4, no. 4 (2023): 1–10.

“Teaching Abortion as a Historical Construct: The Case of Early Twentieth-Century Brazil and Beyond.” Feminist Pedagogies 3, no. 2 (2023): article 9.

With Robson Costa. “‘Maria Simoa, who Birthed Twenty-Four Children, Petitions for her Freedom’: Slavery, Motherhood, and Freedom on the Benedictine Estates, Brazil, 1866–1871.” Hispanic American Historical Review 103, no. 1 (2023): 65–99.

“In the Family Way: Incest, Fertility Control, and the Power of the Patriarchal Family in Brazil.” Women’s History Review 30, no. 6 (2021): 1009–1027. Special Issue: “Intimate Politics: Fertility Control in a Global Historical Perspective.”

With Diana Paton. “Introduction to Intimate Politics: Fertility Control in a Global Historical Perspective.” Women’s History Review 30, no. 6 (2021): 881–895. (First author.) Special Issue: “Intimate Politics: Fertility Control in a Global Historical Perspective.”

With Luiz Antônio Teixeira. “From Embryotomy to Cesarean: Changes in Obstetric Operatory Techniques in Twentieth-Century Brazil.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 95, no. 1 (2021): 24–52. (First author.)

“The Degenerating Sex: Female Sterilization, Medical Authority, and Racial Purity in Catholic Brazil.” Medical History 64, no. 2 (2020): 173–94. Special Issue: “Contraception and Catholicism in the Twentieth Century: Transnational Perspectives on Expert, Activist, and Intimate Practices.”

With Dubois, Ellen. “Feminism, Frogs, and Fascism: The Transnational Activism of Brazil’s Bertha Lutz.” Gender & History 32, no. 1 (2020): 208–26. (First author.)

“Birthing Life and Death: Carioca Women’s Reproductive Health in the Early Twentieth Century.” História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos 25, no. 4 (2018): 921–41. Special Issue: “Labor and Birth: Knowledge, Reflection, and Different Perspectives.”

“Black Nurse, White Milk: Breastfeeding, Slavery, and Abolition in Nineteenth-Century Brazil.” Journal of Human Lactation 34, no. 4 (2018): 804–809.

“Policing Pregnancy: Poverty, Reproduction, and the Law in Early Twentieth-Century Rio de Janeiro.” Journal of Women’s History 27, no. 4 (2017): 85–108.

• 2018 Honorable Mention, Humanities Article Prize, Brazil Section, Latin American Studies Association (LASA)

“From Free Womb to Criminalized Woman: Fertility Control in Brazilian Slavery and Freedom.” Slavery & Abolition 38, no. 2 (2017): 269–286. Special Issue: “Mothering Slaves: Motherhood, Childlessness, and the Care of Children in Atlantic Slave Societies.”

• 2018 Berkshire Conference on Women Historians’ Article Prize in the Field of Gender, Women, and/or Sexuality

Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters

“Silences and the Corporeal: Reading the Enslaved Body in (Historical) Pain.” In Trajectories of Empire: Transhispanic Reflections on the African Diaspora. Edited by Jerome Branche. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2022. Pp. 191–211.

“O trabalho do parto: mão-de-obra escrava, saúde reprodutiva e a influência da Lei do Ventre Livre no pensamento obstétrico, séculos XIX e XX.” In Ventres livres? Gênero, maternidade e legislação. Edited by Maria Helena Machado, Flávio Gomes, Iamara Viana and Luciana Brito. São Paulo: Editora Universidade Estadual de São Paulo (Unesp), 2021. Pp. 109–28.

“A violência obstétrica na Maternidade Laranjeiras: fontes para pesquisas futuras.” In Medicalização do parto: saberes e práticas. Edited by Luiz Antonio Teixeira, Andreza Pereira Rodrigues, Marina Fisher Nucci, and Fernanda Loureiro Silva. São Paulo: Hucitec Editora, 2021. pp. 211–36.

“From Free Womb to Criminalized Woman: Fertility Control in Brazilian Slavery and Freedom.” In Motherhood, Childlessness and the Care of Children in Atlantic Slave Societies. Edited by Camillia Cowling, Maria Helena Pereira Toledo Machado, Diana Paton, and Emily West. London: Routledge, 2020. Pp. 346–63. [Reprint of Slavery & Abolition article]

Peer-Reviewed Teaching Materials

Introduction to Advanced Topic: Reproductive Histories. In History of Science in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2022. Edited by Julia Rodriguez.

Translation and Introduction to: Notes on Reproductive Crimes; Letter Between Lovers About an Abortion; Letter Denouncing Abortion; Letter to a Midwife; Photo of a Black Brazilian Woman. In Brazil Section of Advanced Topic: Reproductive Histories, History of Science in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2022. Edited by Julia Rodriguez.

Translations

“An Alleged Infanticide Case.” In The Rio de Janeiro Reader, eds. Daryle Williams and Amy Chazkel. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015. Pp. 158–62.

Dictionary Entries

“Fonseca, Luís Anselmo da.” In Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography, eds. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Franklin W. Knight. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

“Soares de Meirelles, Joaquim Candido.” In Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography, eds. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Franklin W. Knight. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Book Reviews

Review of Lorena Féres da Silva Telles, Teresa Benguela e Felipa Crioula estavam grávidas: Maternidade e escravidão no Rio de Janeiro (1830–1888). Hispanic American Historical Review. Forthcoming.

Review of Isabel M. Córdova, Pushing in Silence: Modernizing Puerto Rico and the Medicalization of Childbirth. Journal of American History 109, no. 2 (2022): 471–72.

Review of Rocio Gomez, Silver Veins, Dusty Lungs: Mining, Water, and Public Health in Zacatecas, 1835-1946. Social History of Medicine 35, no. 2 (2022): 678–88.

Review of Erika Helgen, Religious Conflict in Brazil: Protestants, Catholics, and the Rise of Religious Pluralism in the Early Twentieth Century. Hispanic American Historical Review 102, no. 1 (2022): 179–80.

Review of Molly C. Ball, Navigating Life and Work in Old Republic São Paulo. H-Nationalism, H-Net Reviews. May 2021.

Review of Lara Freidenfelds, The Myth of the Perfect Pregnancy: A History of Miscarriage in America. Isis 112, no. 3 (2021): 591–92.

Review of Anne-Emmanuelle Birn and Raúl Necochea López, eds., Peripheral Nerve: Health and Medicine in Cold War Latin America. Social History of Medicine. 2020.

Review of Luiz Antonio Teixeira, Tânia Salgado Pimenta, and Gilberto Hochman, eds., História da Saúde no Brasil. Luso-Brazilian Review 57, no. 1 (2020): E8–E10.

Review of Okezi T. Otovo, Progressive Mothers, Better Babies: Race, Public Health, and the State in Brazil. Hispanic American Historical Review 97, no. 3 (2017): 555–556.

Op-Eds

“Kindling for the Fire: Why Brazil’s Lost Research Archives are Irreplaceable.” The Art Newspaper. October 1, 2018.

“The Trump-Fueled ‘Safe Spaces’ for Anti-Semitism Few American Jews Ever See.” Haaretz. October 26, 2016

Blogs

Between 2014 and 2021, I was a contributing writer and editor to Nursing Clio. You can see my blogs here.

“Feminism, Fascism, and Frogs: The Case of Bertha Lutz at the United Nations” Lady Science. May 18, 2017

“He Said, She Said: Abortion Denunciations and Male Power in Turn-of-the-Century Rio de Janeiro.” UCLA Center for the Study of Women Blog. October 18, 2016.

“UCLA Makes Excuses About Sexual Harassment.” The Professor Is In Blog. March 14, 2016

“UCLA Allows Sexual Harassment.” The Professor Is In Blog. March 4, 2016

“Re-examining Life in Academia in the Face of Death.” The Professor Is In Blog. February 8, 2016

With Raúl Necochea López, “Health, Reproduction, and Sex: A Growing Field for Latin Americanists.” Notches: (Re)Marks on the History of Sexuality. May 14, 2015.

“Murdering Mothers: Infanticide, Madness, and the Law in Rio de Janeiro, 1890-1940.” Center for the Study of Women Update. Winter 2014.

“Angelica’s Baby: Pregnancy Narratives in Twentieth-Century Rio de Janeiro.” The Appendix 2, no. 2 (2014).

Review of Health and the Politics of Improvement in British Colonial Jamaica, 1914-1945 by Darcy H. Heuring. Dissertation Reviews. November 2013.

“Avoiding Maternity: Reproductive Practices in 1930s Rio de Janeiro.” Center for the Study of Women Update. January 2011.

“Queering Feminism.” Center for the Study of Women Update. October 2009.

Public Policy Reports

“Hemisphere Highlights: Mexico.” Center for Strategic & International Studies 7, n. 8 (2008): 3.

“Hemisphere Highlights: Guatemala.” Center for Strategic & International Studies 7, n. 9 (2008): 3.

“Hemisphere Highlights: Uruguay, Chile.”Center for Strategic & International Studies 7, n. 10 (2008): 6-7.

Interviews

Interviewed by Júlia Carneiro Dias, “‘Ninguém liga para PMs mortos’ diz Americana que luta por justiça para noivo executado no Rio.” BBC Brasil. January 10, 2018.

A Dark Reality/Uma triste realidade. Revista História, Ciências, Saúde–Manguinhos. November 2014

Media

Quoted in Kimberly Lawson, “Women Strike in Argentina After the Brutal Rape and Murder of a 16-Year-Old Girl.” Broadly. October 19, 2016

Quoted in Stassa Edwards, “At UCLA, Protests over the University’s Decision to Welcome Back Professor Accused of Sexual Assault.” Jezebel. April 5, 2016

Quoted in Colleen Flaherty, “Welcoming Back Accused Serial Harasser.” Inside Higher Ed. April 5, 2016