2023 UIC Sociology Colloquium Series Co-sponsored by Criminology, Law, and Justice
Investigating Families: Motherhood in the Shadow of Child Protective Services w/ Kelley Fong (UC-Irvine)
November 15, 2023
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Over the past half-century, the reach of Child Protective Services (CPS) has ballooned well beyond families where children are in serious danger. Presently, one in three U.S. children, and fully half of Black children, can expect a visit from CPS during childhood, with the agency coming to investigate their caregivers, typically their mothers. This talk argues that threatening motherhood constitutes a central means of managing U.S. poverty and adversity, with profound consequences for family life. Drawing on fieldwork in Connecticut and Rhode Island, including firsthand observations of CPS investigations and hundreds of interviews with those involved, I contend that sending family challenges (and families deemed challenging) to CPS reinforces the precarious position of marginalized mothers and shapes how they marshal resources for their families. The findings underscore the intimacy of contemporary poverty governance; through CPS, the state prods family relations in ways that perpetuate marginality.
*Light lunch will be provided
Date posted
Sep 21, 2023
Date updated
Nov 8, 2023