New Review from Mommy Track’d
December 16th, 2008Mommy Track’d has reviewed Mama, PhD this week; here’s an excerpt of the piece by Jo Keroes.
The Ivory Ceiling
If ever there was a book with my name on it, the one I should have written, this is it: Mama PhD, edited by Elrena Evans and Caroline Grant. Full disclosure. I’ve been an academic all my professional life. I began working toward my PhD when my kids were young and I was teaching at a university part time. I still get the guilt–chills recalling the classes I should have skipped but didn’t, the times I sent a child to school with a hacking cold instead of staying home with her as I knew I should have. I can summon a cold sweat all these years later if I allow myself to remember getting the call that my daughter had broken her arm sailing off a piece of gymnastic equipment and wondering whether I could finish teaching my class and still get to the emergency room on time instead of bolting out the door that very minute. These are the crises that haunt all working mothers, no matter what their jobs. But while it’s old news that corporations aren’t always kind to working mothers – everyone knows that – what gets less attention is the plight of academic women with young children.
Click on over to Mommy Track’d to read the rest!
Caution: Women at Work
December 10th, 2008
Plan to attend St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s Tenth Annual Women Studies Colloquium, which will include a reading by Mama, PhD contributors Jennifer Cognard-Black, Della Fenster, and Elisabeth Gruner (Tuesday, March 24, 8:00 P. M.). For more information, visit their website.
Seeking Input on “Engaged Scholarship”
December 1st, 2008Our good friend Girl w/Pen wants to hear from you! From her blog today:
At the gracious invitation of the wonderful and savvy Renee Cramer (see her prescient GWP post, “This Bridge Called Barack”, from February), I am giving a workshop at Drake University on Friday on the topic of being an engaged scholar. Engaged, as in, with a public outside of the academy. As always, I’m encouraging folks to try to FRAME issues in public debate rather than simply react when others do the framing for us, and rely on shoddy evidence to support their claims.
And so I thought I’d ask GWP readers who have had experiences “crossing over” from a more academically-inclined universe to more “pop” or public writing and speaking.
- What have you learned from your experience circulating in a more public realm?
- Any advice to other scholars who wish to do the same?
And if you have not (YET!) done some of that crossover activity but want to, what holds you back? Please tell me, in comments.
Click on over to Girl w/Pen to give your response.
Survey of Academic Mom Bloggers
November 25th, 2008There is still time to participate in the survey of academic mom bloggers being conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut Psychology Department, so make your voice heard!. “We will be closing the survey to participants in about 2 weeks, and want to give everyone who was interested in participating a chance. Because the community of academic mothers who blog is relatively small, it is important for us to get as many people to fill out the survey as possible. The survey does require a time commitment of about an hour. If you do not have an hour, but do a have a few minutes, please feel free to complete as much of the survey as possible. You do not have to answer every question, although we are very interested in what you have to say about your own experiences as a mother, academic, and blogger. If you think you may have time to fill it out in more than 2 weeks, please let me know. We hope you”ll consider participating!
Here is the link:
http://www.psychsurveys.org/abfox/blogging
We hope to have preliminary results sometime in March and will happily forward those results to people who have expressed interest. “
Call for Submissions: Dads in Academia
November 18th, 2008The editors of Dads in Academia: Male Voices In and Out of the Ivory Tower invite contributions for an interdisciplinary collection of creative nonfiction essays on the rewards and challenges of being both a father and an academic. Much recent discussion about the juxtaposition of parenthood and the academy has focused on the difficulties that female professors face when they choose to become mothers. Books like Mama, PhD, edited by Caroline Grant and Elrena Evans, depict the oftentimes bleak prospects of merging the two endeavors. This collection welcomes the masculine voice into this lively and provocative dialogue. Further, Dads in Academia creates a space for male professors to describe their own experiences of balancing the demands and desires of two worlds that have changed notably throughout the past few decades: fatherhood and academia.
We encourage contributors to consider the changing cultural perceptions, representations, and expectations associated with fatherhood, and to explore the impact of such changes on their identities as teachers and scholars. Increasingly, fathers are taking on a more intense role with regard to child-rearing than ever before. How do today’s male academics view their participation in the parenting process? How is this changing the nature of the job? Has the evolving role of the father in contemporary society changed the job itself?
We also welcome essays that focus on how the evolution of fatherhood is changing the face of academia. Have we seen any concrete changes on college campuses to encourage the “professor as interactive father” schemata? What is the climate like for male professors who “want it all”? Are they able to balance fatherhood and the road to tenure? What gives?
Editors
Mary Ruth Marotte, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of English and the Director of Graduate Studies in English at the University of Central Arkansas, where she specializes in women’s studies and critical theory. Her book, Captive Bodies: American Women Writers Redefine Pregnancy and Childbirth, was released by Demeter Press in October 2008. She lives in Conway, AR with her husband and three children.
Paige Martin Reynolds, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Central Arkansas. Her specializations include Shakespeare, British Renaissance Drama, Performance Studies, and Elizabeth I. She has written articles published or forthcoming in SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, ANQ: American Notes and Queries, and 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era. She lives in Little Rock, AR with her husband and daughter.
Deadline: March 1, 2009
Length: 1,500 to 4,000 words.
Format: Essays must be typed, double-spaced, and paginated. Please include your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and a short bio on the last page.
Contact: mrmarotte AT hotmail DOT com
Reading at University Press Books
November 18th, 2008Lisa Harper, Irena Smith, Caroline Grant, and Jennifer Eyre White recently had the pleasure of reading and answering questions at University Press Books in Berkeley. We’re now planning spring events at the University of Richmond and Duke University; please contact us (editorsATmamaphd.com) if you’d like us to visit your campus!
Study on Blogging and Academic Moms
November 5th, 2008Are you a mom in academia who blogs? Make your voice heard in this survey!
“Your participation would involve the completion of an anonymous online survey. The survey contains a mixture of multiple-choice and open-response questions, and should take less than an hour to complete. The survey does not have to be completed in one session. You may stop at any time and return later to complete it.
“Our hope in conducting this study is that we will gain a better understanding of the role that blogging plays for women maintaining a career and a family in Academia. We thank you in advance for your consideration. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me by e-mail (anniebfox@gmail.com or annie.fox@uconn.edu) or at the address below.
Please click here for further information and/or to complete the survey.
Calling Arkansas and Montreal Mothers in Academe
November 4th, 2008Dear ARM Members and Friends,
Andrea O’Reilly will be in Little Rock, AK for a conference Nov 4-8 and Montreal, QC for a Fellowship Nov 11- Dec 10.
While there, she should like to do some interviews for her research on being a mother in academe.
For more information on this study, please visit www.yorku.ca/arm
If you are interested in participating, please email Andrea directly at aoreilly@yorku.ca
Call for Papers: Motherhood & Philosophy
November 1st, 2008CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
MOTHERHOOD & PHILOSOPHY:
WHAT PHILOSOPHY HAS TO SAY ABOUT MOTHERS AND
WHAT MOTHERS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT PHILOSOPHY
Sheila Lintott (ed.)
Department of Philosophy
Bucknell University
Abstracts with titles are solicited for a new volume in the Wiley-Blackwell series Philosophy for Everyone, under the general series editorship of Fritz Allhoff. As with previous titles now subsumed under the series—Wine & Philosophy, Beer & Philosophy, Food & Philosophy, and Running & Philosophy—Motherhood & Philosophy will be an interdisciplinary collection meant to be accessible to an educated, but non-specialized, audience. Essays should avoid discipline-specific jargon and should inquire into issues of import to mothers and anyone interested in motherhood. The collection will explore the philosophical dimensions of motherhood, including (at least) feminist, existential, ethical, aesthetic, phenomenological, and social and political considerations of pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering by compiling the insights of academics and mothers from a broad range of disciplines and from outside the academy.
If you are interested in submitting work to this project, bear in mind that your essay should incorporate serious philosophical reflection on motherhood. This need not preclude your work from being lively, engaging, and even entertaining.
Guidelines for Contributions:
Abstract of paper (approx. 250 words) submission deadline: 15 December 2008
Acceptances will be issued by 1 February 2009
Submission deadline for completed papers will be 1 June 2009
Final papers should be approximately 4000-5000 words
Abstracts should be submitted by e-mail to sheila.lintott@bucknell.edu.
Please contact Sheila Lintott at the above email address if you have any questions about the book. Other proposals for series titles are also welcome; please direct those to Fritz Allhoff at fritz.allhoff@wmich.edu.
Suggested topics:
More topics related to motherhood are worthy of philosophical reflection than can be articulated here, but the following is a long list of suggestions that may prove fertile ground for inspiration.
On Pregnancy:
Phenomenology: What is it like to be pregnant?
Identity: Who am “I” when pregnant? Am I plural or singular?
Disability Studies: Examination of the intersections of pregnancy and disability, reflections on the increase in pregnancy discrimination complaints, reflections on birth defects and disorders
Ethics: What obligations does the pregnant woman have to the unborn child she carries? How do these obligations differ after birth? What about drug and alcohol use during pregnancy? Reflections on family and medical leave policies for academic and nonacademic moms.
Body Image: Can pregnancy liberate women from the tyranny of cultural norms of prescribed thinness?
Race/Ethnicity: How is the pregnant woman’s body experienced and represented in racialized/racist ways?
Death: Reflections on loss during pregnancy, childbirth, or childhood
On Childbirth:
Birth Control: Has the medicalization of childbirth helped or harmed women?
A Face Only a Mother Could Love: Are newborn babies really beautiful?
Birth Stories: What is the narrative structure of birth stories? Why are birth stories important and yet seemingly inappropriate for public discourse?
Murphy Brown Feels Like a Natural Woman: The affect the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth on television and in film on expectations and experiences of pregnancy and birth
Pleasure and Pain: Considerations of why women have more than one child (after having experienced the excruciating pain of childbirth first-hand)
On Mothering:
What’s in a Name: What is a mother? A mom?
The Toughest Job You’ll Ever Love: Should all moms love being moms?
Brooke vs. Tom: On the nature, proper treatment, and representation of postpartum depression
To Nurse or Not to Nurse: On social and cultural pressures to breastfeed, bottle-feed, or wean
Mommy Wars: Sarah Palin, Hilary Clinton, and the portrayal of moms in power
A Mother’s Love: Can we rationally evaluate our children’s strengths and weaknesses or are we necessarily biased (to exaggerate the good or even the bad)?
Gender Differences: On differences between mothering a daughter and mothering a son
Role-sharing: Can equity exist in parenting or co-parenting relationships?
Gender Roles: What are the differences between mothers and fathers?
Work/family Balance: The politics of professional moms “opting out,” practicing philosophy and being a mom, being an academic and a mom
Parenting: Feminist moms, co-parenting, and non-traditional families
My Mother, Myself: What are the existential implications of the realization that I am, after all, becoming my mother?
Mama, PhD Readings in NYC
October 26th, 2008We’re just back from two terrific, enthusiastic events at Bluestockings Bookstore and KGB Bar in New York City. We’re still scheduling bookstore and campus events, so contact us at editors AT mamaphd DOT com if you’d like us to come visit!
Here’s a picture from our Bluestockings reading with Susan O’Doherty, Elrena Evans, Caroline Grant, Nicole Cooley, and Jennifer Cognard-Black.
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