The real-world, applied research nature of this book - from the viewpoints of girls themselves - adds a nuanced perspective not yet explored in girls' studies....the multidisciplinary nature of the anthology will appeal to sociology, psychology, anthropology, history, religion, and education scholars as well as to women's and girl's studies instructors. Bettis and Adams's edited text serves to broaden and deepen inquiries into the information of girl-to-woman gendered identities.
-PsycCRITIQUES
...editors Bettis and Adams complied qualitative field studies that explore how adolescent girls come to figure out who they are, focusing their examinations on the places in which much of this identity formation is occurring....provides an illuminating look at the informal places and spaces in which identity formation occurs in adolescent girls.-Educational Researcher Journal, December 2006
Geographies of Girlhood provides a foundational text for the emerging field of Girls' Studies. The myriad research projects presented in this anthology push the margins of traditional Women's Studies by taking the girl power movement seriously as a site of inquiry and scholarship. In the liminal spaces that girls inhabit these authors honor the concrete realities of girls' lives as they perform their complex and often contradictory identity work. The interdisciplinary nature of this book will make it of interest to scholars from a wide array of disciplines including Women's Studies, Anthropology, Education, Psychology and Sociology.
-Petra Munro Hendry, Louisiana State University
This compelling new anthology edited by Pam Bettis and Natalie Adams honors girls' lives by critically examining where they live, the spaces and places where they spend their time, and weaving together a range of contemporary social theory to do so. The essays take us from the back of the bus, to the hallways of predominantly white heterosexist schools, to school sponsored fashion shows, prejudicial media representations, cheerleading squads, fight scenes, and more. Some of the essays took me back to my old haunts, prompting me to think of them and my own growing up differently. Others explored spaces I will never know. I learned a lot from this book! My students will too.
-Rebecca Martusewicz, Eastern Michigan University
The collection's emphasis on the daily concerns and habits of girls provides the reader with insights into an array of topics and settings, including power and positioning on the school bus, fighting and cheerleading, passing time and menstruation, gendered religious identity, and pregnant teens' disruptions of the discourses on teen motherhood.--Jessica K. Taft, Feminist Collections