Mothers, Motherhood, and Mothering in Popular Culture

full name / name of organization: 
Southwest Popular/American Culture Association (SWPACA)

Proposals are now being accepted for the conference's newly established subject area, Mothers, Motherhood, and Mothering in Popular Culture. In this inaugural year, we are looking for papers that address mothers, motherhood, and/or mothering as seen within popular culture, such as through:
 representations of mothers, motherhood, and/or mothering including pregnancy, comparison to fathers,
 experiences of mothers, motherhood, and/or mothering and variances by race/ethnicity, genders, class, age, etc.
 theories related to mothers, motherhood, and/or mothering,
 studies about/with mothers, and
 pedagogical applications of research/writing relating to the topic.
KEY TERMS
 Mother: the time period from when one becomes pregnant throughout childrearing years
(Williams, 2005).
 Motherhood: refers to the sociocultural/historical construction—the social norm,
sometimes referred to as the "institution" of motherhood,
 Mothering: the experiences and beliefs of being a mother (See O'Reilly, 2004; Rich, 1995,
1976 for discussion on the distinction between motherhood and mothering).
Papers incorporating intersectionalities of gender/sex, race/ethnicity, age, ability, and/or class are particularly encouraged. Papers from graduate students are welcomed!

SUBMISSION INFORMATION
 Submit proposals of up to 300-400 words to http://conference2016.southwestpca.org/
 Individual Presentation: Each presentation will last approximately 15 minutes.
 Panel: If you want to propose a panel with multiple papers, please put each person's
individual paper abstract on a separate proposal form in the database. Each abstract should also contain information such as panel title, panel chair, etc.
Deadline for submission: November 1, 2015
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Check out the conference website and our new peer-reviewed, open access journal!
 Conference website with information on hotel, travel, guest speakers, and graduate student
awards: http://southwestpca.org/.
 Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy:
www.journaldialogue.org. Let us know if you want to write an article or review a book, film, or comic!