Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (JMI - York University)
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Othermothering and Othermothers in the Harry Potter Series
Get PDFThe Harry Potter series quickly became a classic of children’s literature and remains to date the most read work in the history of literature. That is certainly a good reason to examine more closely its representations of mothers and motherhood. In this paper, I argue that maternal practices and representations, particularly of othermother figures and othermothering practices, are central to the <em>Harry Potter</em> series and that they have specific psychological and social functions. I propose a typology of othermothers portrayed in this literary work. I then explore the psychological functions of other- mothers for readers. Lastly, I show the paramount role played by othermothers in social and political mobilization
Mothering and Professing in the Ivory Tower: Supporting Graduate Student Mothers
Get PDFWomen interested in becoming professors and mothers are often unsure of the besttime to start their families. Many women decide to become mothers in graduateschool. This article discusses the landscape for graduate students who decide to becomemothers ( gsm s) while still in school. There are several obstacles for gsm s who wishto become tenured faculty members. Institutional obstacles include the notion of idealworkers and ideal careers, which do not include the option of motherhood and oftenconflict with the notion of the ideal mother. Another obstacle is institutional genderbiases and assumptions about women, such as the bias against caregiving. Womenof any age are assumed to be responsible for caregiving of children and/or elders.Finally, women lack their own individual agency and do not have family supportto be able to be successful. gsm s can employ various strategies to overcome theseobstacles. Strategies can include institutional change strategies, department support,individual agency, and family support. Obstacles and strategies are illustrated throughpersonal vignettes from the authors’ own experiences: three authors are tenured withchildren, and two have infants and are gsm s. Two authors are or have been chairsof dissertation committees. Recommendations for institutions are offered that cansupport gsm s in their efforts to be successful at mothering and professing in theivory tower. The presented arguments make it clear that the mothering viewpointis sorely needed in the academy, and that gsm s need support from all stakeholdersin order to be successful
Disruptive Speech: A Discursive Analysis of Single Mother Memoirs and the Challenge to Compulsory Heterosexuality
No full textThis article examines the discursive construction of single motherhood in contemporary creative non-fiction. Specifically, I analyze the way single motherhood is imagined in Robin Silbergleid’s <em>Texas Girl</em>, Casey Goldberg, Beth Jones, and Pamela Ferdinand’s <em>Three Wishes</em>, and Andrea Askowitz’s <em>My Miserable Lonely Lesbian Pregnancy</em>. My analysis focuses particularly on the ways that these authors use the discourse of maternity to comment on their experience of compulsory heterosexuality
