Motherhood Unbound: Global Pathways of Motherhood Across Cultures and Disciplines

We invite chapter proposals for Motherhood Unbound: Global Pathways of Motherhood Across Cultures and Disciplines, an interdisciplinary edited volume that will examine motherhood and women’s caregiving across diverse cultural, institutional, and disciplinary contexts. The book will address the complex realities of 21st-century motherhood by positioning maternal experiences as dynamic phenomena shaped by health sciences, social structures, legal frameworks, cultural narratives, religious norms, and interpersonal relationships. The volume will offer a coherent yet richly diverse exploration of women’s maternal lives across national and regional borders.

Motherhood Unbound will argue that motherhood is neither a universal, static role nor a purely private experience; instead, it will emerge as a culturally embedded, politically mediated, and socially negotiated position. Maternal identities and practices will evolve through intersections of gender, class, race, migration status, regional development, and family policy. These intersections will become especially visible when scholarly disciplines and cultural contexts will converge, a methodological approach that will define the core strength of the book.

To achieve this, Motherhood Unbound will integrate contributions from health sciences, sociology, social work, literary studies, legal studies, and development studies. Each chapter will illuminate how different disciplinary lenses will capture distinct yet interconnected aspects of motherhood that often remain siloed in academic discourse. Social-work experts will describe the lived challenges facing mothers in crisis, such as navigating foster care systems, therapeutic parenting, and child-protection institutions. Legal scholars will analyse how housing legislation, surrogacy laws, citizenship regimes, and record-keeping practices will shape women’s reproductive agency. Development and religious-studies contributors will explore how Islamic and other culturally specific interpretations of womanhood will influence maternal expectations and practices. Literary scholars will examine the symbolic, historical, and aesthetic representations of mothers in various national literatures, revealing how narrative forms will construct, reinforce, or challenge dominant cultural imaginaries of motherhood.

In addition to theoretical and cultural analysis, the volume will engage deeply with practical and institutional dimensions of maternal life. Chapters focusing on social-care departments, foster systems, and therapeutic parenting will reveal how mothers, especially those from marginalized or precarious socio-economic backgrounds, will experience support systems, bureaucratic procedures, and crisis interventions. These contributions will highlight how institutional frameworks will operate both as vital sources of care and as sites where structural inequalities will be reproduced.

Motherhood Unbound: Global Pathways of Motherhood Across Cultures and Disciplines will stand as a forward-looking, globally attuned volume that will speak directly to scholars, students, and practitioners across the social sciences and humanities. It will contribute to emerging scholarship on gender, caregiving, reproductive justice, cultural representation, and family systems, and will serve as an authoritative reference for interdisciplinary motherhood studies.

 Submission Guidelines

Contributors will addresstopics including (but not limited to):

• Health sciences and motherhood: maternal health, perinatal care, maternal mental health, reproductive health inequalities
• Social work and practice-based perspectives: foster care systems, crisis intervention, therapeutic parenting, child-protection institutions
• Legal perspectives: housing legislation, surrogacy, adoption law, citizenship regimes, record-keeping practices, reproductive rights
• Religious and cultural contexts: Islamic interpretations of womanhood, religious expectations of mothers, intercultural family practices
• Development studies and regional perspectives: motherhood and socio-economic development, rural/urban maternal disparities, welfare regimes
• Literary and cultural studies: national literatures and their maternal narratives, trauma and healing, representations of maternal identity and resistance

We welcome proposals from both established and emerging scholars.

Please submit:

1. An abstract of 300–400 words outlining the chapter’s argument, theoretical framework, methodology, and disciplinary contribution.
2. A short bio (100–150 words) including institutional affiliation and relevant publications or expertise.

Key Dates

• Abstract deadline: January 31, 2026
• Notification of acceptance: February 15, 2026
• Full chapter submission: October 31, 2026
• Peer review and revisions: November 30, 2026

Contact

Please send proposals and queries to:

Pavlina Flajsarova, Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic, pavlina.flajsarova@upol.cz