CALL FOR PAPERS

In celebration of Mother’s Day, The Association for Research on Mothering (ARM) and MAMAPALOOZAare hosting our 3^rd annual conference in NYC.

Representing Motherhood: Mothers in the Arts, Literature, Media and Popular Culture

May 20-22, 2010, Nola Studios and assorted venues throughout New York City

We welcome submissions from scholars, students, activists, artists, community agencies, service providers, journalists, mothers and others who work or research in this area. Cross-cultural, historical, and comparative work is encouraged. We encourage a variety of types of submissions including academic papers from all disciplines, workshops, creative submissions, performances, storytelling, visual arts, and other alternative formats.

(We found this art at the ‘Digital Mom Blog’. Check her out)

Topics can include (but are not limited to):

Representing the Maternal in Film, Video, Art, Music, and Theater; Theorizing Motherhood and Representation; Race, Representation and Motherhood; Maternal Ambivalence in visual culture; Countering Media Discourses on Motherhood; Maternal Loss, Depression, and Domestic Violence; Performing Feminist Mothering in Practice and Expression; Mother Writer: Writing Motherhood; Creating Outlaw Children; Imaging LGBT Mothers and Maternity; “Late bloomers”: Post-Maternal Mother Artists; Representing Motherhood on the Internet; The Politics of Motherhood and Spirituality in Music and Visual Culture; Motherhood, Art, and Creativity; Healing and Creativity; The Performance of the Maternal or Performing Motherhood; Mothering and Disability: Producing New Paradigms of Normal; Motherhood in the News: Mothers as Newsmaker; Documenting Motherhood: Maternal Documentaries; Mothers, Motherhood and Photography; Behind the Camera: Mothers as Filmmakers, Directors, Producers; Mother Musicians across Musical Genres: Rock, Rap, Folk, Blues, Jazz, Country Narratives of Creative Mothers: Moms who “Rock,” Expressing: Imaging Breastfeeding Mothers, Mommy Bloggers: Re-Writing Motherhood, etc.; Dealing with (Post-partum) Depression by Making Creative Work; Pregnant moms; Celebrity mothers; How images of fathers impact motherhood representation; News media coverage of foster moms; Moms in politics; teen mothers in film or television; advertising as aimed at pregnant/new Moms; Mothers as consumers; Mothering and the representation of Class

CONFIRMED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

Meredith Michaels, author of The Mommy Myth

DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS

*Please email 250 word presentation abstract (including title) and 50 word bio to arm@yorku.ca by January 5, 2010

FIND OUT  MORE about ARM Membership and Conference Details: http://www.momsrock.stirsite.com/conferences.html

Mothering And The Environment: The Natural, The Social, The Built

October 23, 2009

A (M)other world is possible. By, Joy Rose

The Association For Research On Mothering Conference in Toronto, hosted by York University and organized by Dr. Andrea O’Reilly, Heidi Hutner, Genevieve Vaughan and Heide Goettner-Abendroth convened yesterday for three days of Feminist, Activist Maternal discourse on a broad range of subjects that all fall loosely under the heading ‘Mothering and The Environment.

This year’s conference includes keynotes from professors, authors and Phd students from Japan, Germany, Holland, USA, Austria, Canada and England to name a few.

Topics which focus primarily on Mothering and The Environment include examining the interface between the environment and mothers-motherood-mothering by considering issues like ethics, citizenship, home/homelessness, food security, migration, family, nature, built environments and more.

Ecofeminism emerged in the 1970′s heightening an awareness between women and nature and examining power structures, including the domination of humans over nature.

Displays, power-point presentations and conversations at the conference focus on the relationship between us and all that is around us. To this end, mother earth is being deeply examined and ultimately honored.

An embedded conference on Matriarchal Studies and The Gift Economy include heady subjects that explore new social and cultural models as ways to solve many of the contemporary and economic problems of patriarchal capitalism. With today’s global recession there is a suggestion that exchange versus greed and domination will ultimately lead to new ways of doing business.

Inter-related themes of economic (reciprocity), social (marilinearity), political (egalitarian societies of consensus) and cultural (sacral societies as cultures of the Goddess) connect at this intersection of academic discourse and lively interactions that go well into the night.

As a moon-lighting popular culture rock star, my place here could be questioned. But, really the passion and earnestness of the conference attendees is compelling beyond anything else I could imagine. The attendees are diverse in age, geography, attitude and opinion. They are feminists, and they are mothers.

Conversations blend between home-life, work-life and world-life, and like the Tibetan monks spinning their prayer wheels for peace, the women here are invested in something rich and wonderful that goes beyond today’s economics. There is an energy about it – almost like a prayer. They work for a better, kinder, nobler world.

Spiritual Punk Motherhood

THE LOHASIAN

Reprinted from Julia Fenster

Last night I attended an opening night event for Mampalooza, an arts conference and festival celebrating motherhood. The room was filled with an array of supporters from members of the Association for Research on Mothering (part of York University in Toronto), to Alana Ruben Free who publishes the Mom Egg Literary Journal to entrepreneurs, musicians, artists and writers. And of course in their midst, floating across the room was the always outrageous, outspoken and punkishly glamorous Joy Rose, founder of Mamapalooza (who also writes the “Living Loud w/Joy Rose” column on The Lohasian).

The energy in the room was filled with the raw excitement of creativity as women readily exchanged business cards and discussed projects and business’ – in many ways a typical networking event. But what made this event unique, and the events that follow this weekend in NYC, is less the fact that these women happen to be mothers but that they are women who celebrate themselves as fully expressed individuals in light of the challenges of motherhood. For some motherhood is the very subject of exploration in their creative work. For others creativity is nurtured in, and manifested through, parts of oneself that are totally separate of their identity as a mother. The beauty of what Mamapalooza represents is that mothers are to be self defined instead of socially defined, and allows for each women to discover her own individual self – separate of social constructs. http://www.thelohasian.com/2008/05/spiritual-punk-motherhood-inside.html

Mamapalooza