Do you like to write, publish, read, or talk about mothering issues?

I had a great conversation with a friend on Skype last week about the need for more intelligent discourse on mothering issues. We wondered why there are so few spaces where truly diverse, meaningful and intellectual conversations about mothering are taking place. We need more of them, for sure.

One place that these types of conversations already does take place is as the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI). I've mentioned MIRCI on my site before, when I attended their conference on Motherhood Activism, Advocacy and Agency, when I wrote about our (over)investment in parenting highs, and when I talked about the new book they released on the 21st Century Motherhood Movement.

In an attempt to bring more of the diverse, meaningful and intellectual voices on mothering to you and in order to invite you to share your diverse, meaningful and intellectual voices on mothering, I agreed to partner with MIRCI to publish information about their calls for papers, events and publications here on my blog. I don't want to bombard you with posts on this either though, so my plan is to put up a post once per month with some of the key opportunities that might interest you. This is the first edition of such a post.

Calls for Papers

This section includes a list of calls for papers, some of them for conferences and some for edited collections or journals. Most of them accept submissions from both academics and non-academics and include a variety of different formats.

• Call for papers for an edited collection on Disabled Mothers (edited by Gloria Filax and Dena Taylor). The goal of this collection is to add to literatures on mothering and disability through providing stories by disabled mothers or their children, as well as chapters of scholarly research and theorizing. The intent is to raise critical questions about the social and cultural meanings of disability and mothering. Abstracts are due by December 31, 2011. For more details see the call for submissions for Disabled Mothers.

• Call for submissions for a new conference on Mothering and Reproduction, embedded in a conference on the topic of Mothering, Science and Technology to be held October 18 to 20, 2012 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Submissions are welcomed from scholars, students, artists, mothers and others who research in this area. Cross-cultural and comparative work is encouraged. Submissions can include academic papers from all disciplines and creative submissions including visual art, literature, and performance art. For more details on the process and proposed topics for submission, see the conference poster.

• Call for papers on Motherhood/Fatherhood and Popular Culture for the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference in Boston, Massachusetts from April 11 to 14, 2012. My friend Veronica posted the full details of the call for papers for this conference on her blog.

• Call for papers for an edited collection called Chasing Rainbows: Exploring Gender Fluid Mothering Practices (co-editors Fiona Green and May Friedman). This collection attempts to cast a lens on the messy and convoluted ways that feminist parents approach parenting their children in gender aware and gender fluid ways. It welcomes submissions from feminist parents and from the widest range of experiences.  Deadline for abstracts is March 12, 2012. For more details see the call for submissions for Chasing Rainbows.

• Call for papers for an edited collection called Patricia Hill Collins: Reconceiving Black Motherhood (edited by Kaila Adia Story).  This anthology seeks to discuss the impact/influence and/or importance of Patricia Hill Collins on motherhood research and raise critical questions about the social and cultural means of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and mothering.  Abstracts are due by April 1, 2012. For more details see the call for submissions for Reconceiving Black Motherhood.

• Call for papers for Vol 3.2 of the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement to be published in the fall/winter of 2012 on the topic of Motherhood Activism, Advocacy, Agency. Submissions are due May 1, 2012. For more details see the call for submissions for Motherhood Activism, Advocacy, Agency.

New Publications

Demeter Press has recently released a number of new publications, including:

• Through the Maze of Motherhood: Empowered Mothers Speak (by Erika Horwitz)


• Latina/Chicana Mothering (edited by Dorsia Smith Silva)


• Maternal Pedagogies: In and Outside of the Classroom (edited by Deborah Byrd and Fiona J. Green)


• The M Word: Real Mothers in Contemporary Art (edited by Myrel Chernick and Jennie Klein)


• The 21st Century Motherhood Movement: Mothers Speak Out on Why We Need to Change the World and How To Do It (Edited by Andrea O'Reilly)

Some of these titles currently have a 20% pre-order discount. You can order them all on the Demeter Press website.

Disclosure: I am getting a complementary membership to MIRCI and subscription to the journal in return for posting these updates. It is, however, something I would have agreed to do for free because I think their work is so wonderful. I am interested in your feedback on whether you find this information useful.

Image credit: Dave Bleasdale on flickr

Comments

[Jessica - This is Worthwhile]

I find this information extremely helpful and interesting! Just listing their calls for submission has already opened my eyes to events/opportunities I had no idea existed.

[Taisha]

Thanks for the information! I'm sharing this post! : )

[Sarah Blackwell]

I find this very helpful thank you! I have just finished reading a book I ordered from Demeter Press : Mothering and Aboriginal women. I intend to submit in at least one of these. There is also the ARM - Association for Research on Mothering through York University, which I am sure you are aware of since Andrea is the Director.

[phdinparenting]

Sarah:

Actually, ARM has closed and MIRCI replaced it. :)

[Sarah Blackwell]

I just saw that after I posted - thought I would visit since I hadn't been there in a while! See...that is why this post is so helpful! LOL - thanks again:) I thought they had closed some of these already accoridng to an email from Andrea, but I guess its open again? I am a bit confused, but since you have links right to the postings, I will be going by that.

[Fran]

Yes, do keep posting these updates, they are definitely useful.

[Ann Douglas]

I share a lot of these updates via my blog as well (although I'm behind in sharing this latest batch: MIRCI is very prolific!) :-) I think MIRCI is a very important organization that does unique research in the motherhood field. They are very deserving of our support.

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[...] Community Involvement (MIRCI) for a long time. I’ve written about some of their books, their calls for papers, and have attended their conferences. If you want to get beyond the stereotypical “mommy [...]