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Perinatal loss in the Czech Republic explored in seminar co-hosted by the PLRG and ISS21
The Pregnancy Loss Research Group and Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century (ISS21) co-hosted a seminar on ‘Perinatal loss: Challenging the norms in the Czech context’ on 17 June. Dr Iva Šmídová, an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic, delivered the seminar while on an Erasmus exchange with academics at ISS21.
During the seminar, Dr Šmídová spoke about her research which has explored experiences of perinatal loss in the Czech Republic using theories of grief, concealment of death and reproductive loss, medicalisation, and relevant normalising practices. She argued that perinatal loss can help us better understand liminal issues of humanity and change in relations within broader social structures. Publications from this work include:
- The end of the beginning: context of death at birth in the Czech Republic
- The Czech intimate presence of perinatal loss in the Post-Socialist absence of institutionalised humanity
- Engaging in perinatal loss in the Czech Republic: Keen community and haphazard institutionalisation
- The first Czech perinatal hospice: Joint venture or competitive field?
Dr Šmídová has worked in the field of gender studies since the early 1990s in both research and teaching. She is a founding member of the gender studies community at the department. Her long-term research interests include critical studies on men and masculinities, gender relations in the family, sociology of health, illness and medicine, and bereavement studies.
The Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century (ISS21) is an interdisciplinary research institute for the social sciences in UCC, that seeks to build, sustain and enhance research on social, economic and cultural issues that will shape Ireland during the 21st century.
Many thanks to Dr Šmídová, and to Professor Maggie O’Neill (Professor in Sociology & Criminology at University College Cork and Director of ISS21 and UCC Futures: Collective Social Futures) and Dr Caitriona Ni Laoire (Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Studies and Deputy Director of ISS21) for the opportunity to co-host this seminar.