School of Social Work

Biography:

May has grounded her interest in social work in her study of motherhood, which has led to an intense focus on the ways we are all interconnected, as both families and societies.  She has blended this focus with an interest in unstable identities, including bodies that do not conform to traditional racial and national lines.  This interest can be seen in her recent publication, Growing up transnational: Identity and kinship in a global era (2011; co-edited with Dr. Silvia Schultermandl, University of Graz).  May’s most recent project examined mommyblogs as examples of non traditional parenting texts.

Courses taught:

SWP 132 Foundations of Social Work

SWP 341 Transformative Social Work Practice

SWP 31/36 A Social Work Practice Seminar

SWP 31/36 B Social Work Field Practicum

Research interests:

Motherhood and mothering

Networked media

Transnationalism and transnational feminism

Life writing

Social policy

Social work activism

Feminist and post structuralist theories and practices

Selected publications:

Friedman, May and Schultermandl, Silvia (Eds.).  (2011).  Growing up transnational: Identity and kinship in a global era.  Toronto:  University of Toronto Press.

Friedman, May. (2011).  The personal, the political and the complexity of identity: Some thoughts on mothering.  In May Friedman and Silvia Schultermandl (Eds.), Growing up Transnational: Identity and Kinship in a Global Era.  Toronto:  University of Toronto Press.

Friedman, May.  (2010).  On mommyblogging:  Notes to a future feminist historian. Journal of Women's History, 22(4), 197-208.

Friedman, May. (2010). It takes a (virtual) village:  Mothering on the Internet.  In  Andrea O'Reilly (Ed.), Twenty-first century motherhood:  Experience, identity, policy, agency (pp. 352-365).  New York: Columbia University Press.

Friedman, May. (2010). Attachment parenting; Erma Bombeck; Brain, Child; Home birth; Internet and mothering; Mommyblogs.  In Andrea O'Reilly (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Motherhood, (pp. 86-87, 136, 137, 139-140, 528-529, 577-579, 785-789).  California:  Sage Publications.

Friedman May. (2009).  “For whom is breast best?  Thoughts on breastfeeding, feminism, and ambivalence.”  Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering, 11(1), 26-35.

Friedman, May and Calixte, Shana L. (Eds.). (2009). Mothering and blogging:  The radical act of the mommyblog.  Toronto:  Demeter Press.

Friedman, May. (2008). ‘Everything you need to know about your baby’: Feminism and attachment parenting.”  In Jessica Nathanson and Laura C. Tuley (Eds.), Mother knows best: Talking back to the “experts” (pp. 135-147). Toronto: Demeter Press.