- Kristin Luker
Kristin Luker is a professor of
sociology and a professor in the Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program at theBoalt Hall School of Law , at theUniversity of California, Berkeley . She has also been a professor atPrinceton University and theUniversity of California, San Diego . She has won fellowships from theGuggenheim Foundation and theNational Endowment for the Humanities . She is the author of three books about the legal and social aspects ofabortion andteenage pregnancy . She has a Ph.D in sociology fromYale .Her book "Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood" was nominated for a
Pulitzer Prize . The book contrasts the worldviews ofpro-choice andpro-life activists, arguing that the two sides of the debate on abortion are rooted in different sets of values and ideas about women's roles. The book also explores the historical connection between the rise of both pro-life and pro-choice sentiments, and the desire on the part ofphysicians to professionalize their image. She is careful in the book not to reveal her personal position on abortion, but her 1992 article "She's Come To You For An Abortion" inHarper's Magazine reveals that she is pro-choice.In her book "Dubious Conceptions", Luker discusses the evolution of public perceptions about teenage pregnancy during the twentieth century, and argues that teenage pregnancy should be recognized not as a distinct
social problem , but as a symptom of the need for better approaches topoverty .Bibliography
* "Taking Chances: Abortion and the Decision Not to Contracept" (University of California Press, 1975) (ISBN 0-520-02872-4)
* "Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood" (University of California Press, 1984) (ISBN 0-520-05597-7)
* "Dubious Conceptions: The Politics of the Teenage Pregnancy Crisis" (Harvard University Press, 1996) (ISBN 0-674-21703-9)
* "When Sex Goes to School: Warring Views on Sex—and Sex Education—Since the Sixties" (W. W. Norton & Company, 2006) (ISBN 978-0-393-34996-4)External links
* [http://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/LUKER/index.htm Berkeley sociology department page on Kristin Luker]
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