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This is Just the Beginning

It’s been a while since I’ve updated you all, safe to say that life can be a little overwhelming at times; it is still important to show up. This week was focused on preparing for my thesis-in-progress presentation and taking a more intentional look at how my project has taken shape. I spent time organizing my central inquiry and refining my thesis statement so that it clearly reflects my focus on caregiving as both labor and intimacy, particularly within the experiences of Afro-Caribbean and immigrant women. I also worked on structuring my literature review into three distinct sections: primary texts, theories of care, and existing scholarship on domestic labor. Breaking it down this way helped me better understand what each group of sources is doing and where my work fits within those conversations. I revisited key texts like Atlanta, Mothercoin, and Raising Brooklyn through close reading, while also identifying how theorists like Tronto and Hanlon, and scholars like Hunter, Katzman, Auerbach, and Macdonald, contribute to my understanding of the politics of care.

In addition to my literature review, I began to more clearly define my methodology. I am now working with a combination of close reading and comparative analysis, alongside creative and autoethnographic writing. Thinking through these as connected approaches rather than separate ideas helped me see how my project can move between analysis and creation. I also began thinking more seriously about how my creative pieces, such as fictional retellings from the perspectives of caregivers or their families, will function as part of my argument rather than something separate from it.

At this point, I feel somewhat on track. There are still gaps in my research that I need to continue filling, and I am realizing that this stage requires ongoing reading and discovery. At the same time, I now have a clearer structure and direction than I did before preparing for this presentation. Moving forward, the next few weeks will be focused on constructing my research proposal. I plan to approach this week by week, dedicating time to strengthening each section, including expanding my literature review, refining my methodology, and continuing to develop my central argument. As we move into the final weeks of the thesis process, my goal is to stay consistent, deepen my analysis, and begin shaping all of these pieces into a cohesive and purposeful final project.

Student Blogs

Building my Lit Review

This week I focused on reading more intentionally for my thesis and paying attention to which sources actually support the argument I am trying to build. I am working toward framing the politics of care, especially the tension between care as labor and care as intimacy, and I am starting to see that not every strong source is the right source for this specific project.

One of the first readings, The Politics of Care by  Woodly, Brown, Marin, Threadcraft, Harris, Syedullah, Ticktin (2021), felt promising at first because it discussed care in broad, political terms. It spoke about the importance of centering care in society and rethinking how we value caregiving. While those ideas align with my interests, the source remained too general for the direction my thesis is taking. I am not only arguing that care matters. I am examining how care becomes complicated when it is paid for, outsourced, racialized, and embedded in systems of capital. I need sources that move beyond celebration and into structure. I need language that helps me analyze power, contracts, emotional labor, and the unequal recognition of intimacy.

In contrast, Professional caring in affective services: the ambivalence of emotional nurture in practice by Niall Hanlon directly support the framework I am building. Hanlon examines how emotional care is central to caregiving but often marginalized within professional systems that prioritize efficiency, measurement, and instrumental tasks. This distinction between instrumental care and relational care speaks directly to my project. It helps me articulate how caregiving can be treated as a service while still functioning as an intimate emotional relationship. That tension is at the heart of immigrant nannying and outsourced motherhood.

Hanlon’s discussion of emotional labor and the difference between care and love is especially useful. Care can be commodified; love cannot. Yet in many caregiving relationships, particularly with children, the boundaries blur. A nanny may be paid, but the child’s attachment is not transactional. This is where the politics of care becomes visible. The contract may end, but the emotional imprint does not. That distinction gives me analytical language to examine how care operates both as labor within capitalism and as intimacy within lived experience.

This week clarified something important for me, and something we spoke about collectively last week. Securing sources for this thesis is not about gathering as many readings as possible. It is about identifying scholarship that can hold the complexity of what I am studying. For my project, that means sources that address:

  • The feminization and racialization of care labor
  • The global and economic structures that produce outsourced caregiving
  • Emotional labor and professional boundaries
  • The tension between contractual obligation and emotional attachment

As I continue building my literature review, I am becoming more selective. I am looking for sources that allow me to examine care not just as a moral good, but as a political, economic, and emotional structure. The more I refine what I need, the clearer my thesis direction becomes.