YRC Political Sociology of Health Speaker Series: Omitted Births and their Consequences

On Oct. 21, the YRC Political Sociology of Health Speaker Series will feature a talk by Amanda Cheong, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. Cheong researches the impacts of documentation and legal status on people’s lives, working with stateless, undocumented, and refugee communities in Southeast Asia and North America. Her work has appeared in publications such as Social Problems, Sociological Theory, International Migration Review and positions: asia critique. She earned her PhD in sociology and social policy at Princeton University in 2019.

One in four children under the age of five worldwide have not been registered at birth. Why are births still going uncounted in the modern world, despite the importance of civil registration for individuals’ rights and for states’ governance capacities?

Cheong asks this question in her book project (Omitted Lives). Join us for her talk, “Omitted Births and their Consequences.” She will present findings from her ethnographical exploration of the challenges faced by legally marginalized families accessing basic recognition of their existence, and the documents to prove it, in Malaysia. She will describe the reverberant consequences that result when the inclusionary and universal project of civil registration becomes subordinated to the exclusionary project of citizenship.

Light refreshments will be provided. All are welcome!