Books
A feminist blend of memoir and cultural history, Milk explores the social, historical and personal meanings of breastfeeding, and what they reveal about motherhood, bodies and care.
'a brave writer....takes us on an illuminating tour of shifting attitudes and practices' - THE SUNDAY TIMES
'a love letter to all who have cradled an infant...the beauty of Wolfarth's story telling is hard to convey...it is a story for us all' - BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE
'it's a diverse affair, taking in everything from ancient icons of motherhood and Renaissance views of the sanctity of milk, to Victorian medical manuals and trips to the 21st-century maternity ward...' - BBC HISTORY REVEALED
‘ Compassionate, compelling and beautifully told. A sublime book.’- ELINOR CLEGHORN, author of UNWELL WOMEN
‘Erudite, intimate and compelling, Milk is a long-overdue history of humanity's first food.’ - LEAH HAZARD, author of WOMB
‘Sensitively drawn and full of insight, this is an intelligent and inventive new approach to a subject that should matter to all humans. Stunning.’ - JENNIE AGG, author of LIFE, ALMOST.
‘Wolfarth uses breastfeeding as a lens through which to examine and critique the structures of motherhood, but it's also a text suffused with love and care, and I felt equal parts enlightened and comforted after reading it.’ - MIRANDA WARD, author of ADRIFT
‘I adored Milk. It is such an open-hearted, tender, gorgeous book; the way Wolfarth writes of mothers and milk so carefully crafted and so caring in equal measure.’ - Kerri ní Dochartaigh, author of THIN PLACES
Becoming Parents
Photographs by Janine Bächle, with an essay by Joanna Wolfarth
An unflinching, autobiographical photographic project documenting pregnancy, birth, and early parenthood, its joys alongside its anger, exhaustion, and doubt.
My commissioned essay, ‘In Flux: The Aesthetics of Becoming’, sits alongside Bächle's photographs, diary entries, and medical records, exploring the tension between image, word, and document at the heart of the book.
Published in English and German.
Winner of the Belfast Photo Festival 2026 Photo-Book
ASIA-ART-ACTIVISM: Experiments in Care and Collective Disobedience
Co-edited by Joanna Wolfarth and Annie Jael Kwan, this is a polyvocal collection of 18 essays by leading academics, artists, curators and researchers who address urgent questions of the complexities of UK Black/Asian race relations and migrations, in parallel with global Black/Asia political entanglements and tensions, reflections on the rise of anti-Asian/migrant sentiment in the UK in relation to the ‘Hostile environment’ and the weaponisation of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Across discursive and creative pieces, writers also explore where Asia is situated within institutional narratives of British art, the nature of transnational solidarity, and how ‘diaspora’ can work as a lens to inform and inflect cultural activities. It also includes artistic contributions from AAA Residency Associates from 2018-2021.
Publications
You can read many of my essays over on my Substack.
Imprints
Winner of the Wild Muse Nature Writing Prize | December 2024
It is midnight. I’m at home, my forehead pressed deep into the rough nap of the sofa as another contraction swells up from my womb. My baby is coming.
It is also a late summer afternoon and I am climbing to the ruined fort. Ahead of me, over the cliff edge, I hear the roar of the open ocean. My baby is coming.
"Imprints" is available to read here
A Universe in My Hands
Unbroken | Winter 2024
As I usher him from the kitchen, I see a near-empty compost bag rise triumphantly from the lawn, where it languished for two weeks. Fingers pull at my belt loop and the staircase is covered in flakes of dried mud. When did I last clean the sink?
"A Universe in My Hands" is available to read here
Express Delivery
GOODWOOD Magazine | Autumn 2024
Breast milk, sometimes referred to as "liquid gold," has long been celebrated for its exceptional nutritional and medicinal properties. Until relatively recently human breast milk was thought to be sterile but we now know that it is full of bacteria. But it’s only now that researchers are looking into the precise composition and functions of these bacteria….
Express Delivery is available to read here
When I struggled with breastfeeding, ancient images of motherhood helped me feel less isolated
The Observer | 22 January 2023
Focusing on the most vital task of my life made me feel small and inconsequential in the world. It was visual art that offered me solace in that tumultuous first year of new motherhood.
Womb milk and the puzzle of the placenta
Wellcome Stories | 18 October 2023
Breast or formula milk is essential to the existence of a newborn baby, but it’s less well known that even as an embryo they’re dependent on a type of milk. Historian Joanna Wolfarth explores ancient beliefs about the role of the placenta, as well as recent research on uterine nourishment.
The History of Breast Milk in Art
Hyperallergic | 10 August 2023
Milk is not only humanity’s food but also a liquid dripping with symbolism, from spiritual salvation to maternal devotion.
Feeding Futures
Corridor8 | 24 October 2022
These fraught practical negotiations of space, public perception and a hungry baby happened in parallel with coming to terms with an ever-changing postpartum body, my new identity within the world, and a host of unexpected emotions.
In the Shadow of Angkor
History Today | 2 February 2022
The ruined temples of Cambodia’s medieval empire became symbols of a people who had forgotten their history. In reality, they demonstrate an inherent continuity.
Confusion, guilt, and the battle to breastfeed
Wellcome Stories | 19 February 2020
Weeks of worry, pain and confusing input from an array of health professionals accompanied Joanna Wolfarth’s struggle to breastfeed her baby. She gradually discovered evidence going back millennia that indicated her problems were not new ones.
The Angkor Empire’s National Health Service
History Today | 14 May 2020
After decades of turmoil, in 1181 Jayavarman VII restored order to the Angkor Empire by embracing Buddhism and introducing an unprecedented public healthcare programme.
Uncanny Encounters at Angkor
Alpine Fellowship – Academic Writing Prize Runner-Up | 2021
I cannot pretend to be immune to the romantic allure of the ruin. My decision to pursue research on Angkor was sparked by a moment of uncanny fascination, where any sense of academic objectivity was overcome by an embodied response to what lay before me. I remember it with distinct clarity.
Podcasts and Interviews
Wild Muse: Editing is Crucial
In this conversation with Joanna Wolfarth, winner of the Wild Muse Nature Writing Prize, we explore the role of external feedback in shaping a writer’s voice. Joanna shares how the process of revision – sometimes painful, always illuminating – transforms raw inspiration into something refined and resonant.
On the Irregular with Java Bere: Conversation with Joanna Wolfarth
We discuss shifting approaches to writing throughout her life, we talk about her book, how motherhood and losing a close relative to suicide have impacted her life and work, about the ‘destruction and the construction’ of the self as a consequence and allowing herself to be more vulnerable.
Motherhood vs The Machine: Could mothers be replaced by feeding machines?
Breast is best, or best is fed? In this episode, we tackle one of the most controversial aspects of mothering: feeding.
BBC Woman's Hour
When art historian Joanna Wolfarth was pregnant with her first child, she assumed she would breastfeed, as her mother had fed her. This didn’t go according to plan.
Times Radio Off Air with Jane & Fi: Triggered by the word 'teats'
Jane and Fi are talking all things breastfeeding and they are joined by art historian Joanna Wolfarth.
The Story of Woman: From Ancient Bottles to Modern Struggles
A Deep Dive into Breastfeeding with Joanna Wolfarth and delve into the historical evolution of breastfeeding norms and practices, examining how societal changes impacted women's experiences.
History Extra podcast: Breastfeeding: a cultural history
Breastfeeding may seem like an innate human experience that transcends history. But, according to art and cultural historian Joanna Wolfarth, experiences of feeding babies have always been embedded in social and cultural customs.
Not Too Busy To Write: Joanna Wolfarth on non-fiction and writing intimate cultural history
Joanna talks about how needing to make sense of the experience of new motherhood, led to a furious dive into the research between feeds and in tiny snatches of time when her baby slept, how motherhood made her fearless when it came to writing and non-fiction that seeks to ask questions, rather than provide all of the answers.
BBC Radio 4 Child: 17. Milk
Milk. However it comes its a vital source of life. India Rakusen explores it’s various forms and the history and politics that have shaped the way we view how we feed our babies.
Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society: History of Breastfeeding
How has our relationship with breast milk changed through history? Why are there associations of shame with this most natural act, of us consuming humanities first food? And what does the formation of our galaxy have to do with it?