Sheila Kitzinger Programme
About
The Sheila Kitzinger Programme at Green Templeton College honours the life and builds on the work of the social anthropologist Sheila Kitzinger (1929-2015).
Sheila’s comparative research blended intense immersion in different communities, participant fieldwork and strong clinical knowledge to advocate evidence-based decisions on medical, legal and social change.
Her practical and policy work ranged over a broad range of issues touching the human rights of prisoners, refugees and others marginalized by society on pretexts of race, religion or poverty: but above all she was a high-profile feminist campaigner for the empowerment of women to secure for them freedom and choice in pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding.
The current members of the programme’s Steering Group are: Aileen Clarke (Chair), Celia Kitzinger, Jacob McKnight, Lesley Page, Tanvi Rai and Rachel Rowe.
For more information, contact the Green Templeton Academic Projects team or Professor Aileen Clarke, the Steering Group chair.
News
3 April 2024: Extraordinary Meeting
On 20 March 2024 the Sheila Kitzinger Programme Steering Group met with expert advisors, friends of the programme, and postgraduate students for a morning at Green Templeton College.
The aim of the meeting was to review the programme’s activities and achievements since its inception in 2015, and to generate and gather ideas and advice for the future. The meeting heard about the programme’s origins in the academic and activist careers of Sheila and Uwe Kitzinger, especially their passionate commitment to changing the world for the better, their open-mindedness to new ideas and new causes, and their willingness to improvise and make outsized use of limited resources. The resulting programme has supported work on a wide range of projects which have made positive – and sometimes dramatic – interventions into complex medical and social issues affecting the most vulnerable and marginalized, from childhood malnutrition in Oxfordshire to national midwifery education to legal decision-making for patients in prolonged disorders of consciousness. The programme’s work also aligns closely with the ethos and transdisciplinary research interests of Green Templeton College.
The Steering Group and its chair, Aileen Clarke, are keen to hear further feedback on the programme and ideas for how it can best continue its successes in the future. If you have comments, please write to Ruth Scobie.
16 May 2023: Uwe Kitzinger (1928-2023)
It is with sadness that we report the death of Sheila’s husband Uwe Kitzinger. Uwe was tremendously generous in setting up and supporting the Sheila Kitzinger Programme and was steadfast in honouring the life and work of his late wife. Read more about Uwe
