Towards geographies of mothering: Care, identity and the socio-spatial context of mothering

Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers, New Orleans, LA, April 10-14

This call for participation aims to connect disparate strands of research regarding mothers into a more cohesive ‘geographies of mothering.’    Holloway (1998) suggests that mothers are under-researched because of social sciences’ domination by the masculinized subject.  Although she was writing nearly two decades ago, there is still a dearth of articles specifically exploring geographies of mothering.  Despite some progress in research examining a variety of topics such as child care, mothers’ subjectivities, ‘mumpreneurs’ and the ways mothers are disciplined in and through space, motherhood on the whole has remained underexplored in geography.  Yet, mothering is highly spatial, from geographical variation in constructions of mothering, the regulation of mothers, and different discourses around motherhood to some of the specific bodily limitations of mothering in and through specific spaces.  

Further, the act of mothering also shapes roles in higher education, both in the sense that many of us have to negotiate balancing work with family responsibilities, but also in the sense of roles we may play ‘mothering’ students and colleagues, or ourselves receiving ‘mothering’.  Organizing around such identities offers an opportunity not only to expand literature on geographies of motherhood and maternal subjectivities but may potentially serve as an important space to address mental health challenges, stress and the need to build caring networks in the academy.

To that end, we welcome papers on a wide range of subjects, including, but not limited to the following:

-What role does the act of giving or receiving ‘mothering’ (or the lack thereof) play in shaping spaces of higher learning? 

-How does mobility shape beliefs about motherhood, access to particular resources, or shifting responsibilities for social reproduction and care?

-How do discourses of mothering differ by race, class, ethnicity, and place?

-How does mothering change in the context of conflict and war, environmental shifts, the increasing role of online spaces and other on-going socio-economic, political, environmental or technological shifts?

-Is there a reason to develop a geographies of mothering as opposed to continuing to discuss topics related to mothers through other specific bodies of literature (social reproduction, care, etc) or to look at parents more generally?  What are some of the limitations and strengths of focusing on geographies of mothering specifically?

Depending on interest, we hope to organize both a paper session and a panel.  Please submit abstracts for the paper session and/or expressions of interest in the panel session to Dena Aufseeser at [log in to unmask] by October 15, 2017.