CALL FOR PAPERS
Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI)
Supporting and Empowering Mothers in the Academe:
Strategies for Institutional Change and Individual Agency
June 24-27, 2013, Toronto, Canada
The
conference, "Supporting and Empowering Mothers in the Academe:
Strategies for Institutional Change and Individual Agency," will examine
the subject of mothers in the academe from scholarly and activist
perspectives by drawing on academic papers and interactive workshops. It
will join scholars that specialize in academic motherhood research with
individuals and agencies that support mothers in the academe.
According
to recent studies of both academic women and mothers, gender
discrimination in general, and that targeting academic mothers, is
pervasive in academia. According to a recent Statistics Canada Report
women comprise only 35.6 percent of all tenure track/tenured university
faculty in Ontario. In 2009 at Canadian universities, only 30.9 percent
of tenured positions were held by women, but 53.4 percent of non-tenured
lecturers were women. The Canadian Association of University Teachers
Almanac of Post-Secondary Education 2011/2012 reveals that only 21.8
percent of Full Professors in Canada are women and only 16.3 percent of
Tier 1 Canada Research Chairs are held by women.
The
conference will examine obstacles to and strategies for maternal
empowerment in the academe within the context of institutional change
and individual agency. The roles that race, class, sexuality, age,
ability, religion and ethnicity play in reinforcing/constructing
obstacles to the advancement of maternal empowerment and agency in
academe, and the structural changes needed to remove them, will be
explored. The conference will draw attention to the experiences of
graduate student mothers; many of the papers and workshops will be
presented by graduate students, and others are concerned with mentoring
graduate students.
The
main aim of the conference is to deliver models, strategies, and
practices of maternal empowerment that are relevant and practical; the
activists, service providers, and policy makers who advocate for mothers
in academe must be able to utilize them. As reputable public
institutions, universities must put family-friendly policies and
attitudes into practice that uphold gender equality; this will allow
women to balance their academic career paths with the stages of
motherhood. Universities stand to tarnish their reputations and lose
some of their most talented scholars if they do not.
The
conference will generate valuable information on what is needed to
support mothers throughout their academic careers, and uphold women's
contribution to university culture.
We
invite submissions for papers as well as workshops from faculty,
students, service providers, activists as well as members of faculty
unions and associations.
If you are interested in being considered as a presenter for either a paper
and/or workshop, please send a 250 word abstract, a 50-word bio by March 1, 2013 to aoreilly@yorku.ca
** TO SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT FOR THIS CONFERENCE, ONE MUST BE
A 2013 MEMBER of MIRCI: http://www.
Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI)
140 Holland St. West, PO Box 13022, Bradford, ON, L3Z 2Y5
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.