Working Papers Seminar Series 2025-2026
Jocelyn Olcott and Tania Rispoli
25 August 2025This is the fourth edition of the Working Papers Seminar Series, an online forum where early- and mid-career scholars share work in progress with experts from the interdisciplinary field of care studies. The Fall 2025 cycle is fully supported by the Revaluing Care Lab at the Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke University.
Fall Semester 2025
Women’s Work and the Social Organization of Care in Argentina
Wednesday, September 17, 5:30–7:00 pm ET – Online
Presenter
Mariana Brocca (Universidad de Buenos Aires),
“Back to the Future? Women’s Work and Social Organization of Care in Argentina’s ‘New’ Neoliberalism Era”
Respondent
Elisabeth Jay Friedman (University of San Francisco)
Social Reproduction and Gender-Equitable Growth
Wednesday, September 24, 10:05–11:20 am ET – Online
Presenter
Aashima Sinha (Levy Economics Institute),
“The Road to Gender-Equitable Growth: A State-level Analysis of Social Reproduction in the U.S.”
Respondent
Elissa Braunstein (Colorado State University)
Reproductive Justice as Economic Practice
Wednesday, October 1, 10:05–11:20 am ET – Online
Presenter
Deb Machado Nunes (Monmouth University),
“Building Reproductive Justice as a Research Program in Economics”
Respondent
Nancy Folbre (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
Informal Care, Gender, and Precarity in Southern Europe
Monday, October 20, 10:05–11:20 am ET – Online
Presenter
Melanie Sara Palermo (University of Macerata),
“Revaluing Care in Southern Europe: Gendered Dynamics and the Challenges of Informal Care on Occupation”
Respondent
Cindy L. Cain (University of Alabama at Birmingham)
Cooperatives, Care, and Collective Social Organization
Wednesday, November 5, 10:05–11:20 am ET – Online
Presenters
Cecilia Cornaggia (Catholic University, Milan)
Chiara Ferrari (Catholic University, Milan)
Eliana Debia (Universidad de Buenos Aires)
“The Social and Cultural Role of Cooperative Organizations: Reflections from the Thought of Martha Beatrice Webb”
Respondent
Giandomenica Becchio (University of Turin)
Chapter in Progress: Black Women, Violence, and Urban Decline
Presenter
Terrion Williamson, pre-circulated chapter workshop on the book in progress
The Unreckoned: Black Women, Serial Murder, and the Decline of the All-American City
Led by
Jennifer C. Nash
Co-sponsored by
FHI, GSF
Thursday, November 6, 12:00–1:30 pm ET – In person,
Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, Smith Warehouse (Duke Map)
Data, Value, and the Making of Care Work
Wednesday, November 12, 4:45–6:15 pm ET – Online
Presenter
Julia Kowalski (University of Notre Dame),
“‘The Power of Data’: Value and Quantification in Producing Care Work as a Policy Object”
Respondent
Durba Mitra (Harvard University)
Spring Semester 2026
Fragile Care
Friday, February 6, 12:00–1:30 pm ET – In person
Presenters
Eliza Williamson (Duke University),
“Debilitating Care: Mothers na correria in the Wake of Zika”
Shaun Respess (North Carolina State University),
“The Emergent Normativity of Carebots: Evaluating the Proficiencies of Embodied Artificial Intelligence”
Respondent
Emily Rogers (Duke University)
Care, Radically
Tuesday, February 16, 5:00 pm ET – In person
Presenter
Jessie Wilkerson (University of Tennessee),
“Care, Radically: Labor Conflict and Networks of Care in Industrial Appalachia”
Respondent
Anne Whisnant (Duke University)
Care After Work
Thursday, March 26, 11:45 am-1:00 pm ET – Online
Presenter
Viviana Valle Gomez (UCSB),
“The End of Sex Worker Legibility in State Structures: Rejection of Work and the Possibilities of Care”
Respondent
Kathi Weeks (Duke University)
Infrastructures of Wellbeing
Friday, March 27, 12:00–1:15 pm ET – Online
Presenter
Erica Aloe;
Roberta Di Stefano;
Marina Zannella;
Alessandra De Rose (ISTAT),
“Depopulation of Disadvantaged and Rural Areas and the Subjective Well-Being of Commuters”
Respondent
Wendy Harcourt (Erasmus University)
Healing Touch
Friday, April 3, 12:00–1:30 pm ET – In person
Presenter
Sumathi Ramaswamy (Duke University),
“Touching Care: Gandhi and the Art of Healing the Leprous Body”
Respondent
TBC
Cuidado Comunitario
Wednesday, April 8, 1:25–2:40 pm ET – Online
Bilingual Session
Presenter
Marcia Moreno Benítez,
“Community Care as a Counterpart to Gender Violence: The Case of the Mujeres Sanadoras Collective in Los Castillos, León, Guanajuato, Mexico”
Respondent
TBC
Ancestral Care
Friday, April 17, 12:00–2:00 pm ET – Online
Presenters
Evan Auguste and Nadège Robertson,
“Sék Lakou Tanama: Rethreading Haitian Futures Through Tradition”
Respondent
Deborah Jenson
Care and Territory
Friday, April 24, 12:00–2:00 pm ET – Online
Bilingual Session
Presenters
Nirieth Jhoely Castelblanco Torres
Norma Georgina Gutiérrez Serrano
Paris Olalde Estrada
“Cuidar la revolución para verla florecer: Los conocimientos-prácticas de las mujeres anarcomagonistas como una política en femenino”
Amada Aurora Vollbert Romero,
“Reminiscencias de la vida lacustre: alimentar el territorio de la montaña al lago”
Respondent
Holly Worthen