Faculty News
Carrie Hough (Sociology, Anthropology & Social Welfare) is a Scholar in Residence at the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Iowa during her pre-tenure leave this term. She is working on a new research project that will examine the transition to employed motherhood for women returning to paid work after the birth of their first child. US Census data indicates that over half of employed women who become first-time mothers return to work by the time their infant is three months old. The "fourth trimester" is a time of great change and adjustment for women and their families, and for many new moms this also includes the physical, emotional, social, financial and organizational challenges of integrating mothering and paid work. This interview-based ethnographic research will redress the lack of in depth, qualitative investigation into this transition and seeks to understand how employed women make child care decisions (writ large) pre-natally and whether/how they implement those decisions post-partum, as well as the meanings new moms attach to their strategies to integrate their lives as mothers and workers.
Eric Stewart (Religion) is a contributing author in Volume 5 of The New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible. He wrote two articles under the heading "Wither" and "Withered Fig Tree".