Call for Papers
Demeter Press
is seeking submissions for an edited collection on
Laboring On: Testimony, Theory &
Transgressions of Black Mothering
in Academia
Editors:
Sekile Nzinga-Johnson & Karen Craddock Pub Date: 2012/2013
This book aims to interrogate the intersecting forms of oppression that are experienced by Black female faculty and scholars who "labor" and "mother" within the academy. The context in which Black female academics occupy is an important starting point to consider given
the longstanding history of the patriarchal, racially biased, and anti-family environment of academia. Post civil rights and women rights colleges and universities continue to be sites of struggle and resistance for African American women despite higher education achievements.
This anthology will offer a particularly nuanced discussion on the emergent literature on parenting and work that explores academic institutions that largely mark black women's bodies as deviant and pathological. We encourage submissions that explore various
constructions of "mothering" and "being mothered" which contribute to the experiences of Black women academics. For the purposes of this book we have broadened our conceptualization of "mothering" to include care work. Thus "mothering" may
include the expectations or practice of providing formal and informal support to
students of color and/or students that are alienated within the academy, as
well as the mentoring of junior faculty, faculty of color, female faculty,
caregiving/parenting faculty, and those outside the academy. The term "labor"
theoretically extends this volume to include the voices of Black academic women who often occupy the lowest echelons of the academic class structure. We also invite contributions
that encompass the strains between work and home/community life for Black
academic mothers. The goal of this volume is to further the discussion of work and family from a critical and interdisciplinary lens that illuminates the complex realities of Black women
who mother and labor within the academy.
Suggested topics may include but are not limited to:
Academic climate; Research & policy on
African American mothering in the academy; Resistance to marginalization within
the academy; Work-life strains; Embodying multiple marginalities in the
academy; Intersectionality; Constructions
of black mothering/motherhood; Explorations of various
constructions of "mothering" and "being mothered"; Parallels and
confounds of mothering and mentoring; Gender
roles and responsibilities; Black mothers and the "maternal wall"; Analysis of
Black mothers in the academy as laborers; Embodiment; Identity; Black maternal
theory and activism; Black mother- academics, stress and health; Experiences of
adjunct and part time professors; Students as academic mothers; Tenure and
promotion; Early, mid & late career mothering decisions; Single parenting;
Dual careers; Black foster and adoptive mother academics; Black women scholars
as intellectual mothers; Black grandmothers as academics; Black mothering and
laboring in different academic settings; Teaching Black Motherhood; Pedagogy;
Bias avoidance/choosing not to parent as an academic; Black mother-academics
and community; Black academic mothers "having it all"; Biographies; Narratives
and Autobiographies.
Submission guidelines:
Abstracts should be 250 words. Please also
include a brief biography (50 words).
Deadline for abstracts Nov 1, 2010
Accepted papers of 4000-5000 words (15-20
pages) will be due June 1, 2011 and
should conform to the Modern Language Association style.
Please send submissions directly to:
Sekile Nzinga-Johnson snzinga3@naz.edu [mailto:snzinga3@naz.edu]
and Karen T.
Craddock kcrad@brandeis.edu [mailto:kcrad@brandeis.edu]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Demeter Press
140 Holland St. West, PO 13022
Bradford, ON, L3Z 2Y5
info@demeterpress.org [mailto:info@demeterpress.org]
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