Call for Papers for an edited collection: Mothering as/in Text

The editors of a new collection are looking for submissions that
explore the ways that motherhood—as a practice, a set of beliefs, a
political and cultural category—gets written and distributed through a
wide variety of texts.

The collection will feature a variety of disciplinary perspectives and
methodological approaches to this topic, and "text" should be
understood broadly here. For example, submissions might include studies
of

-mass media texts such as films, advice books, and parenting magazines
-traditional literary or theoretical texts
-cultural objects like the car seat or play pen
-activist literature
-oral texts (ex., conversations between a doctor and patient or among
mothers in a play group)
-classroom dynamics and pedagogies
-and so on.

Recent research on mothering, as well as new critiques of
representations of mothering, has clearly addressed the difficulties
faced by mothers in contemporary society. While submissions may
certainly make arguments about the way that motherhood is understood
today and the ideological implications of those understandings, the
editors are especially eager to include arguments about where we—as
mothers and as children—might go from here in our approach to
motherhood. Our collection proposes to build on earlier work by
focusing as much on innovative theory and political solutions as the
status quo. Contributions addressing issues of race, sexuality, and
class with regard to mothering are especially welcome.What new
understandings of motherhood might we glean from these texts? What new
roles might be available to mothers and how else might the traditional
roles of mothers be filled/appropriated/reconsidered? What new
practices and policies might we argue for?

Email 500-word abstracts as a Word attachment to Pegeen Reichert Powell
at ppowell_at_aurora.edu and to Jocelyn Fenton Stitt at
Jocelyn.stitt_at_mnsu.edu by May 15. Include contact information (name,
address, institution, email, phone) in the same document. Complete
essays will be due July 15.

 
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Received on Tue Mar 07 2006 - 18:21:30 EST