Full Description
Inspired by those who mothered before and through the COVID-19 pandemic, this is a book about, for, and with those who live different embodiments of academic mothering—mothers, othermothers, academic mothers, and mothering academics. In this book, mothering is defined broadly, encompassing those who are biologically or legally mothers with children; those who are "not-mother" but who nonetheless understand and practice mothering; those who do identify as mothers but not as women; and all those who take on mothering roles in academia and beyond.
Through poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction, image and text, the authors in this edited book creatively explore academic mothering through their unique lived experiences, illuminating three ideas that comprise the three sections of this book: mothering as practice, mothering in precarity, and mothering as relational. Through considering—and in many cases, writing about and through—their own mothering practices, this diverse collection of authors critique the systemic failures of academia in the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, fabulating new possibilities that envision a future in which mothering is valued and supported in (and by) higher education.
Contents
Foreword: Of the Passing of COVID: A Motherscholar's Lamentation Isn't Sad
Cheryl E. Matias
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Kelly W. Guyotte, Stephanie Anne Shelton, Shelly Melchior and Carlson H. Coogler
PART 1: Mothering as Practice
1 Mothering in the Dirt: Kenning Self and Kin
Carlson H. Coogler
2 The Other Mothers: No, Not the Ugly Stepmothers or the Fairy Godmothers...the Teacher Mothers
Stephanie Anne Shelton and Tamara Brooks
3 Sources of Hope into, through & beyond Academic Mothering during the Pandemic
Melisa (Misha) Cahnmann-Taylor
4 A Graphic Representation of Parenting in the Pandemic: Borders, Binaries, and Boundaries
Kate E. Kedley
PART 2: Mothering in Precarity
5 Rejecting Good Mother: Becoming Otherwise in Precarity
Tynetta Jenkins, Erica Warren, Susan Ophelia Cannon and Elaine Thurmond
6 "I'm Not Your Superwoman": An Exploration of the Strong Black Woman Trope and How It Affected My Doctoral Journey
A. C. Johnson
7 The Miscarrying Mother
Kelsey H. Guy
8 Compelled to Care: Academic Work in a Mother-Fucking Dystopian Hellscape
Mandie Bevels Dunn, Jennifer R. Wolgemuth and Lodi Lipien
PART 3: Mothering as Relational
9 Gifts and Grief: Poetic Ruminations on Academic Mothering during the COVID-19 Pandemic (and Beyond)
Kelly W. Guyotte
10 Queer Mothering in Academia as Pandemic Preparation: A Dialogue between QueerMotherScholarFriends
Jill Hermann-Wilmarth and Caitlin L. Ryan
11 Mothering and Working across Difference: Intergenerational Conversations on Living with Uncertainty
Daniela Gachago and Mo Gachago
12 And These Things Are Good
Shelly Melchior
Epilogue
Kerry Crawford and Leah Windsor
Index
