IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 1019: Breast Borders: Motherhood and Breastfeeding in the Middle Ages, I - Mothers and Wet Nurses

Wednesday 8 July 2020, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:	University of Cyprus
Organisers:	Stavroula Constantinou, Department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies, University of Cyprus, Nicosia Aspasia Skouroumouni Stavrinou, Department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies University of Cyprus Nicosia
Moderator/Chair:	Aspasia Skouroumouni Stavrinou, Department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies University of Cyprus Nicosia
Paper 1019-a	Children in Distress: Agonising Mothers as Intercessors in Byzantine Miracle Collections (Language: English) Andria Andreou, Department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies, University of Cyprus, Nicosia Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Gender Studies, Hagiography
Paper 1019-b	The Date Palm and the Wet Nurse: Commodified Breast Milk in Medieval Jewish Thought (Language: English) Rebecca Winer, Department of History, Villanova University, Pennsylvania Index terms: Gender Studies, Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Mentalities, Social History
Paper 1019-c	Breastfeeding in Spanish Medieval Literature: A Political Function? (Language: English) Sophie Hirel-Wouts, Études Ibériques et Latino-américaines Sorbonne Université Paris Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Spanish or Portuguese, Mentalities, Political Thought
Abstract	Taking as its point of departure Susanne Dixon's dictum: 'the biology of infancy is universal, but the human perceptions of it and what it requires are socially conditioned and subject to historical change' (The Roman Mother 1988: 129), this series of sessions aims at contributing to the 'breastfeeding turn', by promoting the investigation of the various aspects of the strong affinities between woman-as mother and nurse-and her lactating breast, as well as the social, ideological, and medical meanings and uses of motherhood, childbirth, and breastfeeding, and their visual and literary representations in the Middle Ages.