UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Choreographing Childbirth: Tactics and Techniques of Motherhood A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Critical Dance Studies by Kate Nicole Stahl-Kovell December 2020 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Anthea Kraut, Chairperson Dr. Tammy Ho Dr. Imani Kai Johnson Dr. Chikako Takeshita Dr. Linda Tomko Copyright by Kate Nicole Stahl-Kovell 2020 The Dissertation of Kate Nicole Stahl-Kovell is approved: _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ ________________________________________________ Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS They say a dissertation is a “labor” of sorts—it is. And no labor functions without the support of a mother’s birth team. To my “midwife” or dissertation chairperson, Anthea Kraut. The graduate students at UC Riverside call you a “unicorn.” They are mystified by how you accomplish raising a family, produce cutting edge, award-winning scholarship, champion Dance Studies, and provide quick and thorough feedback to each of your graduate students among the many other tasks you do. But, it’s not magic. You are the smartest and hardest worker that I have ever met. Your passion for your family, field, social justice, and your research is downright inspiring. Thank you for taking me and so many more under your wing. Thank you for reading millions (or just shy of a couple dozen) chapter drafts over the last four years. Thank you for encouraging me to finish this doctorate degree, even when life threw me a couple of loops. Thank you for understanding my wayward path, providing a loving light to me and all in the department—you are the heart of Dance Studies. To my supporting “midwives” or defense committee, Linda Tomko, Imani Kai Johnson, Tammy Ho, and Chikako Takeshita, thank you for undertaking the task to nurture this outside-the-box dissertation. Linda, I would not know how to formulate a research idea let alone write a research paper without your loving help in graduate seminar. At every turn in this program, you have been available with a listening ear and kind and thorough feedback—thank you. Imani, thank you for always having your door open in the department. Whenever I had a question about ethnography you were there to iv walk me through it. Tammy, I could always count on you for support and encouragement. I appreciate the scholarly opportunities and the maternal activist links you sent me during these last four years of research and writing—thank you. Chikako, reading your work on childbirth and having you provide feedback on mine has made my research grow immeasurably—thank you. The University of California, Riverside provided funding for my first four years of graduate school through the Dean’s Distinguished Diversity Fellowship and Gluck Fellowship of the Arts. I would not have been able to do this work without sound financial support. The Dance department has also gifted me with grants throughout my years at UCR—thank you. Many thanks to Priya Srinivasan, who demanded I stretch my ideas to the breaking point, always encouraging me to use both my activism and creativity to create meaningful work. Love and gratitude to the professors in Anthropology at California State University, Dominguez Hills: Jan Gasco, Jerry Moore, and Sue Needham. Your faith in my abilities years ago far outweighed my own—thank you for inspiring me to pursue research and to go for this PhD. Special thanks to Sue for mentoring me, taking me to Cambodia and beyond. Sincere thanks to Michelle Waiters at the McNair Program at CSUDH, for helping me become a McNair Scholar to prepare for a career in research. When it takes almost nine years to finish a PhD, you make a lot of friends. To my colleagues, otherwise known as the Unicorn cohort—Monica Rodero, Dan Schuchart, Meghan Quinlan, Natalie Zervou, Julie Satow Freeman, Jes Mullett, Kendall Loyer and Jen Aubrecht, thank you for your friendship that always felt more like family. We have v been there for each other, sharing laughter during seminar, at beach dates, weddings, in celebration of our Dance Studies babies, to the completion of our MFAs and PhDs. Our connection is rooted in mutual love and respect and I couldn’t be more thankful for you all. Special thanks to Monica for your sisterhood, to Meghan and Natalie for reading and re-reading the earliest versions of this work and for cheering me on to the finish line. Much appreciation to Julie for taking me on as adjunct faculty in the Dance department at Mt San Jacinto College. To Jelena Radovic-Fanta, Adonna Jones, Alexx Salazar, Marcus Renner, Cuauhtémoc Peranda, Xio Forbez, and Chrissy Canady—your loving care and feedback kept both this dissertation and I afloat amidst choppy waters, thank you. Thank you to Celso Jaquez, my partner in crime, who took the great leap with me to a PhD program from CSUDH’s Anthropology program—it was easier being in graduate school with a friend close at hand. To my mentors, Raylene Phillips, Gretchen Andrews, and Cindy Pulsha, thank you for opening up your world of maternal and infant healthcare to me. Thank you for inspiring me to move into clinical work to care for moms and babies. Thank you for being mother figures to me in times of great crisis for my family. Special thanks to Raylene for lending her home to my family when we were cramped in a camper—you are a life saver. Many thanks to the board members of The Milky Way Foundation, especially Jenny Davidson, Eve Hurwitz, Katrina Nelson and Chantal Molnar, who have cheered me on throughout this dissertation project and then made me President of our non-profit, to boot. Our activism to support mothers and babies has joyfully fed into this dissertation research. Much gratitude to the nurse-midwives at Beach Cities Midwifery— vi BJ Snell, Vickie Alston, Allison Molinski, and Mary Kern—who helped me cultivate a new understanding of maternal healthcare and many thanks to both my son Bernard’s and my care team at Long Beach Memorial Miller’s Women and Children’s Hospital— Vivian Peak, especially—who saved both my son and I and also gave me a new perspective on the technocratic model of childbirth. To my grandmother and best friend, Roberta “Bobby” Cook, thank you for your frank assessment of life, your unswerving faith and love in me, and for all the unique hand-knit items I could ever dream of. I love you, tremendously. To my mother, Penelope “Penny” Stahl, for taking my mind off of my research with our debates about how many times “Sonny” from General Hospital has been shot and for your love in me, your middle child. You define the word perseverance. To my sister, Rachel Skiba, for stepping up when I could not to be my mother’s caregiver when she was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s at age sixty. While working on this project it has been beyond comforting to know mom is safe and cared for in your diligent hands. Thank you. To my cousin, Hannah Hughitt, for your endless positivity, your thirst for change, and your inspiring verve for life. To my in-laws, Nancy and Don Kovell, thank you for being there for my family during these years of research and writing—I won’t forget it. To my friend, Andrea Thompson, who has always been my champion. You carried me through my darkest moments during my family’s stay in the NICU, helped me express breastmilk in OR recovery, and have been my friend and confidant for near- twenty years. Thank you for being there for me through all the ups and downs of this dissertation research and writing. I love you, forever. To my friend and sister, Melissa vii Montanez, for holding a safe space for me to just be me and for your encouraging texts, from “get it done!” to “keep working on it!” I love you. To my dear friend Amanda Anderson, for your companionship in motherhood and scholarship and for your endless, infectious positivity—you are a warrior. To my friend, Rae Chrisman, for your cheer, your spite against systems of inequity, and for your support as I finished this dissertation. To my friend, Victoria Piar, for laughter and much needed levity during the starts and stops of writing. To my friend, Cassondra Gonzales, for your unwavering faith in my ability to juggle “all the things” and for your sass when handling police officers while babywearing at a protest. Thank you to this community of women who supported both me and this project in all of its stages. To my therapist, Krystle Rowe, who walked me through my healing, introduced Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and the Comprehensive Resource Model (CRM) as techniques of the body in therapy, showing me that—yes—it is possible to heal Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Without you I would not have been able to finish this dissertation nor take the next leap into clinical work. Thank you for helping me realize that the last step in my healing journey is to help others heal, too. I deeply appreciate you. Deepest thanks to my new cohort and faculty in Syracuse University’s Online Marriage and Family Therapy Master’s Program, especially Deb Coolhart, Jaunai Staton, Maddie Arsenault, and Emily Wells, who created space for me to continue my work on this dissertation while navigating the new workload of learning to be a therapist. viii Particular thanks to my family’s safe havens on our year of travel between 2018- 2019 in a camper while dissertation-writing: Anvil Campground in Williamsburg, Virginia, KOA Santa Cruz in California, Susie and Aden Hershberger of Holmes County, Ohio, the Gillard Family of Gloucester, Massachusetts, Creekside Glen Mobile Home Park in Crestline, California, and—of course—Grandma Bobby of Green Valley, Arizona.