Dear All,
Some group members may be interested in my new book: Changing Names and Gendering Identity: Social Organisation in Contemporary Britain:
https://www.routledge.com/Changing-Names-and-Gendering-Identity-Social-Organisation-in-Contemporary/Thwaites/p/book/9781472477705
About the Book
This book investigates contemporary naming practices on marriage in Britain, drawing on survey data and
detailed interview material in which women offer their own accounts of the reasons for which they have changed or retained their names. Exploring the ways in which names are used to create and understand family, to cement commitments and make it clear to the
self and to others that subject is in ’true love’, Changing Names and Gendering Identity considers the manner in which names are used to make sense of the self and narrate life changes and choices in a coherent fashion. A critique of the gender-blindness of
sociological theories of individualisation, this volume offers evidence of the continued importance of traditions and the past to the functioning of contemporary society. In dissecting the everyday, taken-for-granted ritual of name changing for women on marriage,
it sheds light on the nature of an enduring set of unequal gender relations which are used to organise society, behaviour and interpersonal relations. Engaging with questions of power, heteronormativity, and gender relations, this analysis of a significant
ritual of contemporary heterosexual marriage will interest sociologists and scholars of gender studies with interests in the family, identity and gender relations.
Many thanks, and best wishes,
Rachel
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Dr. Rachel Thwaites | Lecturer
in Sociology |
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College of Social Science |
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Recently published: Thwaites, R. (online first). Making a Choice or Taking a Stand? Choice Feminism, Political
Engagement, and the Contemporary Feminist Movement. Feminist Theory.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1464700116683657
Thwaites. R. (2017).
Changing Names and Gendering Identity: Social Organisation in Contemporary Britain. London: Routledge.
Thwaites, R. and Pressland, A. (eds) (2017).
Being an Early Career Feminist Academic: Global Perspectives, Experiences, and Challenges. London: Palgrave.