CFP: Communicating Motherhood/Mothers Conference (Canada)

CALL FOR PAPERS
COMMUNICATING MOTHERHOOD/MOTHERS COMMUNICATING
"HIGH CULTURE" TO POP CULTURE TO NEW SOCIAL MEDIA
May 9-11 2013, Toronto, Ontario Canada

We welcome submissions from scholars, students, activists, artists, community workers,bloggers, mothers and others who research in this area. Cross-cultural and comparative work is encouraged. We are open to a variety of types of submissions including academic papers from all disciplines and creative submissions including visual art, literature and performance art.

This conference will explore the nature, status, representation and experience of mothers and motherhood in various historical, cultural and literary contexts, and examine the many ways in which mothers have been and are affected by, viewed, and/or challenged contemporary cultural
norms and dominant ideologies and representations of their role.

Topics may include but are not restricted to:
Representations and depictions of mothers/mothering/motherhood in fiction, poetry, drama, art, music, film, advertising, TV, facebook, blogs, twitter; investigations into navigating cultural expressions of "good" and "bad" mother/ing; transmitting maternal knowledge(s), parenting skills, mothers/mothering and language, mothers and literacies, feminist motherlines; teaching/learning about mothering/motherhood through literature, popular culture, celebrity culture, new media; parenting/mothering in literature, art, popular culture, social media, the blogosphere; queer engagements with mothering/motherhood in literature, popular culture and social media; de/constructing embodied understandings of mothering, mother, motherhood; how communication technology permeates the work/home barrier, assists/ challenges relationships and attachment with adopted and biological children; the impact of literature/popular culture/social media on opinions regarding reproduction; mothers' relationship with "the experts"; expert discourses vs. grassroots communications; transmission of culture and ethnicity through various maternal modalities; mothering in the Information Age; communicating mothers/motherhood across the generations; crossing national borders and class divides through New Social Media; communication and other revolutions (or political organizing), new social media-linking or dividing moms?; low-income and young mothers' access to and use of New Social Media; cybermothering; mothers/motherhood and Communication Studies; mothers/mothering and education, learning and pedagogy.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: TBA

If you are interested in being considered as a presenter, please send a 250 word abstract and a 50-word bio by NOVEMBER 15, 2013 to info@motherhoodinitiative.org

** TO SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT FOR THIS CONFERENCE, ONE MUST BE
A 2013 MEMBER of MIRCI:

Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI) 140 Holland St. West,
PO Box 13022, Bradford, ON, L3Z 2Y5 (905) 775-9089 http://www.motherhoodinitiative.org

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.