Robbie Davis-Floyd

In Davis-Floyd's first book, Birth as an American Rite of Passage, she defines "technocracy" as a society organized around the super-valuation of high technology and the global flow of information.

She argues that the beliefs and practices associated with birth are driven from a "technocratic model" that was influenced by the Industrial Revolution.

Home birth midwives make a conscious and purposeful attempt to provide alternative knowledge that is scientifically accurate and culturally appropriate.

In Cyborg Babies, Davis-Floyd and Dumit show that new reproductive technologies can create a barrier between mother and child, in regards to visualization, conception, and legislation.

[11] A system comes to carry more weight when it has superior purpose to explain a state of the world or greater hegemonic force because it is held by people in power.

"[14] Anthropologist Donna Haraway proposed this new discipline and utilized by Joseph Dumit of MIT and Robbie Davis-Floyd in 1998.

At the request of Diony Young, editor of Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care, Robbie wrote an article about her experiences of Peyton's death called "Windows in Space/Time" (freely available on her website www.davis-floyd.com).

[1][17] Robbie Davis-Floyd was Valedictorian of her high school class at St. Mary's Hall in San Antonio, Texas.

[1] Davis-Floyd later received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972 (summa cum laude and with Special Honors in Plan II).

[19] In 1975–1976, Davis-Floyd was a summer Spanish instructor for Centro de Artes y Lenguas Mexicanas, Cuernavaca in Morelos, Mexico.

[17][21] In 1997–1999, Robbie Davis-Floyd was a participant of the Council for European studies for the International Research Planning Groups Program.

[1][22] In 2019, Robbie Davis-Floyd continues to serve in the Department of Anthropology at University of Texas, Austin as Senior Research Fellow.

[1][25][26] Davis-Floyd was chair of the editorial committee of the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services, helping to create the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative for the US (1995).

[1][29] Robbie Davis-Floyd was a founding member of the Council on Anthropology and Reproduction and currently serves as its senior advisor.

[37] In 2003, she (and Carolyn Sargent) received the Enduring Edited Collection Book Prize from the Council on Anthropology and Reproduction for Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge.

[38] Davis-Floyd received the Transforming Birth Fund Grant Award for Changemakers in 2006, which was supported by Waterbirth International.