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.
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.