MOTHERING IN LITERATURE,
POPULAR CULTURE AND THE ARTS
October 12-14, 2001
Vari Hall, York University, Toronto
Program
FRIDAY October 12
3-7pm Registration
7-9pm Keynote address
Canadian Perspectives on Mothering in Literature and Art
Di Brandt, (University of Windsor) "Maternal Strategies in Canadian Literary Studies"
Lori Saint-Martin, (University of Quebec) "The Name of the Mother: Mothers and Daughters in Quebec Women's Fiction"
Leslie Reid, (University of Ottawa), "After-Image: Making Art and Mothering Teens"
9-11 Opening reception. Launch of Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering. Vol 3.2 "Mothering, Fathering and Peace" and Rishma Dunlop's edited collection Child
SATURDAY October 13
8-9am Coffee & muffins
9-10:30 Session A
Panel One: Maternal Work: Issues and Perspectives
Evelyn Ibatan Rodriguez, (University of California, Berkeley), "Mothers of (Re-)Invention, Children of Innovation: How Cultural Care is Given and Received in ‘Mixed" Filipino-While Families"
Mari Carmen Marin, (University of Almeria, Spain), "‘One of Those Mothers in the National Enquirer’: The Limitations of Motherhood in an Oppressive Atmosphere"
Vinita Kshetrapal, (University of Delhi, India), "Psychodynamic Functions of Mothering"
Panel Two: Mothers and Children: Relationships
Carol Trehus, (University of Wisconsin-Stout), Ambiguous Loss and the Mother/Adult Son Relationship During Life Cycle Transitions"
Laurel Tien, (University of British Columbia), "Celebrating ‘Extended’ Breastfeeding: A Community-based Visual Culture Project"
Trudelle Thomas, (Xavier University), "Mothers of Misfits: Memoirs by Mothers of ‘Exceptional Children’"
Panel Three: Mothering and Performance
Christina Halliday, (York University), "A True Story, Performativity, and the Embodied ‘Wona’"
Susan Driver, (York University), "Parodic Pleasures of Maternal Texts""
Panel Four: Mothering and Visual Art Practice - Artists’ Slide Talks
Cheryl Pagurek, (artist), "Merging Oppositions: Experience and Expression"
Lise Melhorne-Boe, (artist), "Delectable Mountains: Artist as Mother, Mother as Subject"
10:30-10:45 BREAK
10:45-12:15 Session B
Panel One: Mothers and Daughters in Literature
Mary E. Barr, (Drew University), "Renaissance Women and their Daughters in Middleton’s Plays and Women’s Texts"
Ruth Panofsky, (Ryerson University) "The Memoirs of Fredelle Bruser Maynard and Joyce Maynard"
Nancy Gerber, (Rutgers University), "Refiguring the Marassa: Separation, Connection, and Mother-Daughter Boundaries in Edwidge Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory"
Nancy Johnston, (University of New Brunswick, Saint John ), "‘that bitch who ran off and left her babies’ Forgiving the Mother in Dorothy Allison's Cave Dweller"
Panel Two: Theorizing the Pregnant Body
Pamela McKenzie, (University of Western Ontario), "‘I’m just the patient here. I don’t know anything about this.’ The Construction of Authoritative Knowledge in the Literature of Multiple Pregnancy and the Discourse of Pregnant Women"
Jennifer Musial, (Bowling Green State University), "‘Pregnancy Chic’: The Marketing of Maternity Wear"
Brenda Clews, (York University), "Towards a Maternal Discourse"
Sallie Han, (University of Michigan), "Making Babies, Making Mothers: Pregnancy and Personhood"
Panel Three: Maternity and Poetry - Readings
Kate Daniels, (Vanderbilt University), A Poetry Reading with Commentary from The White Wave, The Niobe Poems, Four Testimonies, and My Poverty"
Cassie Premo Steele, (University of South Carolina), readings from Walking on the Backs of Whales
Rishma Dunlop, (York University), readings from Stories from Boundary Bay
Panel Four: Maternal Power and Work
Gudrun Grabher, (University of Innsbruck, Austria) "Working Mother: A Comparative Analysis of Marisol's Art Piece "Working Woman" and Tillie Olsen's Short Story "I Stand Here Ironing"
Stephanie Chastain, (University of Washington), "Motherpower: Fictionalizing Anne d’Autriche in Alexandre Dumas’ Le Vicomte de Bragelonne"
12:15-1:30 LUNCH
1:30-3:00 Session C
Panel One: Nature vs Nurture: Mothering in Adoption Narratives
Jill Deans, (Kansas State), "Killing Off the Birth Mother; Cultural Implications in the Fiction of Bharati Mukherjee and Linda Horgan"
Carol Singley, (Rutgers University-Camden), "Narratives of Salvation (and Damnation?): Birth Mothers in Nineteenth-and Early Twentieth-Century American Fiction"
Marianne Novy, (University of Pittsburgh), "Adoptive Mothering in George Eliot and Barbara Kingsolver"
Martha Satz, (Southern Methodist University), "Bad Mothering and Othering One's Child: Monstrous Children in Three Recent Narratives"
Panel Two: Drama and the Maternal
Leslie Hurley, (Bronx Community College) "Feminisms and Motherhood in the plays of Pam Gems"
Jozefina Komporaly, (University of Warwick, UK), "Technological Intervention and the Politics of Mothering in Contemporary British Women’s Drama"
Amy Cuomo, (State University of West Georgia.), "Illegitimacy and Adoption in Contemporary Drama"
Panel Three: Representations of Mothers and Children in Popular Culture
Nancy Backes, (Cardinal Stritch University), "Anxious Moments, Frantic Grief: Mothers and Sons in Art and Greeting Cards"
Margaret Christakos, (writer, Toronto), "Saturday Morning Cartoons and the New TV Teen Host: Hyperactive Self-Conscious Babysitters You Would Never Hire (Or Would You)?"
Janice Williamson, (University of Alberta), "Haunted Maternity: Infertility, International Adoption & Cultural Mythmaking"
Panel Four: Voicing the Maternal
Jane Satterfield, (Loyola College in Maryland), Reflecting Mom at Twice Her Size"
Judith Bechtel (Northern Kentucky University) and Kate Johnson (writer, Colorado), "Readings from Legacy: A Mother-Daughter Exploration"
3:00-3:15 BREAK
3:15- 4:45 Session D
Panel One: Maternal Redemption and Transformation in Contemporary Literature by Women of Colour
Andrea O'Reilly, (York University) "Delivering Divinity: Maternal Resistance and Redemption in Toni Morrison’s Paradise"
Anne D. Steiner, (Central State University), "Perspectives on Motherhood in the Characterization of Consolata in Toni Morrison's Paradise"
Panel Two: Mothering and Creativity in Writing and Visual Art
Rachel Josefowitz Siegel, (psychotherapist in private practice, retired, Ithaca, New York), "When Jewish Mothers Write About Being Jewish Mothers"
Lois Rubin, (Penn State, New Kensington Campus), "Motherhood and Writing"
Monica Bock, (University of Connecticut), and Myrel Chernick, (New York), "Maternal Metaphors: Artists/ Mothers/Artwork"
Cassie Premo Steele, (University of South Carolina), "Mourning the Mother (land): Reflections on Colonization, Inheritance and Memory"
Panel Three: Representations of Mothers in Popular Culture
Sharon Abbey, (Brock University), "Teaching a Course on Media Images of Mothering: Reflections and Responses"
Gail McCabe, (York University), "Aftermothering: Crone 'morphs' and discourse in virtual and temporal space."
Christine Peets, (writer, Ontario), "Under the Influence: Alcohol and Other Substances in Popular Culture"
Carol Duncan, (Wilfred Laurier University), "Black Women as Heroic Mothers in Contemporary Science Fiction"
Panel Four: The Red Shoes Collective: Mothering, Art and the Academy
Rishma Dunlop, (York University), and Gailene Powell, (University of British Columbia)"Red Shoes or Ruby Slippers: The Mother Artist in Academia"
Stephanie Springgay, (University of British Columbia), "Unruly Bodies: Autobiography and visual art, a language of teaching"
Kelly Young, (York University), "The Art of Poetic Reponse: Aesthetic Practices as Embodied Knowledge"
Kathleen Vaughan, (York University), "Visual Artist as Good Mother"
4:45- 5:00 BREAK
5:00-6:30 Session E
Panel One: The Maternal in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Literature
Nicole Fluhr, (University of Michigan), "Loss Made Literal: Nineteenth-Century Maternal Figures"
Susan Hennessy, (Missouri Western State College), "Industrialized Motherhood in Emile Zola’s Les Rougon-Macquart"
Rita Bode, (Trent University), "Creating Life, Creating Art: Kate Chopin’s The Awakening"
Bonnie Nelson, (Kansas State University), "The Eighteenth-Century Novel and The Survival of Motherhood"
Panel Two: Children's Literature and Literacy
Roz Stookes, (University of Western Ontario), "Tales Told Out of School: Mothers as Advocates for Children's Literacy Learning"
Marnie Ellis, (Ohio University), "Tutoring Tots: Mothering Children and the Pedagogy of Gender in Maria Edgeworth's The Cherry Orchard'"
Karen Prince, (The College of New Jersey), "Mothers, Babies, and Books: A Series of Ten Experiences Integrating Children's Literature and Multi-Sensory Activities"
Panel Three: Personal Reflections on Mothers and Daughters
Nancer Ballard, (Brandeis University), "The Fruit of the Trouble Tree"
Nancy Gobatto, (University of Windsor), "I Can Love You Even if we Disagree: Escaping the Unavoidable Failure of Motherhood"
Debbie Rolf, (writer), "Memory Lane"
Panel Four: Mothering and Teaching
Celeste Sulliman, (University College of Cape Breton), "From the Kitchen to the Classroom: Exploring the Meaning of Being a (M)other-academic"
Virgina Worley, (Oklahoma State University), "Mothering-Teaching in Partnership with Place: Acts of Recognition, Resistance and Subversion of Patriarchy"
Melissa Hamilton Hayes, (University of Nebraska Lincoln), "Teaching into Motherhood: Self Identity and Student Perceptions of a Pregnant Teacher"
Arlene Edwards, (Georgia State University), "Mothering the Mind: Creating Intentional Communities as Methods of Academic Assistance and Empowerment"
6:30- 8:30 Conference Dinner
8:30-10:30 Entertainment - TBA
SUNDAY October 14
10-10:30am Coffee and Muffins
10:30-11:45 Session F
Panel One: Mothering and Autobiography: Narrating the Maternal
Angelita Reyes, "Surrogate Mothering: Maroon Nanny Jean Rhys and Marronage"
Siphokazi Koyana, (University of Pretoria, South Africa), "‘Why Are You Carrying Books? Don’t You Have Children?’: Revisiting Motherhood in Sindiwe Magona’s Autobiographies"
Panel Two: Maternal Selves/Visions: Body and Soul
Donna C. Woodford, (Shenandoah University), "Maternal Beasts: Motherhood and Animal Imagery in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale"
Saroj Chawla, (York University), "Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Mother (Goddess) Viashno Devi"
Chris Klassen, (York University), "‘What do you have to do, to lay your mother to rest?’: Reconciling Earthly Mothers and Goddess Mothers in Starhawk’s Fiction"
Panel Three: A Performance Piece
Kathryn Church (independent researcher and guest curator, "Fabrications") and Lorraine Church (housewife and dressmaker) "Needles and Pins: Dialogue on a Mother-Daughter Journey"
11:45-1:00 LUNCH
1:00-2:15 Session G
Panel One: Maternal Identities Across Cultures
Francisca Isi Omorodion, (University of Regina), "Maternal Role of Women in Southwestern Nigeria: Stress and Satisfaction"
Rachana Johri, (University of New Delhi, India), "Mother Love as Resistance: Mothering and Loving Daughters in Urban India"
Mary Valentich, (University of Calgary), "Searching for the Wall of Love: Mothers for Peace during the War in the Balkans (1991-1995)"
D. M Akande, (Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria), "Motherhood under Duress in Nigerian Women's Writing"
Panel Two: Mothers and Mothering in Contemporary Literature in French
Gill Rye (Institute of Romance Studies, University of London, UK), "In Uncertain Terms: Mothering without Guilt in New French women's writing (Angot, Darrieussecq)"
Margot Miller (University of Maryland), "The Matrople: Anxiety and Mothering in Paule Constant's Fiction"
Servanne Woodward (University of Western Ontario) "Minor and Adult Motherhood under the French Law in two novels by Regina Yaou (Ivory Coast)"
Panel Three: Maternal Performance Pieces
Rishma Dunlop, (York University), and Gailene Powell, (University of British Columbia), "Songs Before the Dawn"
Brenda Clews, (York University), "The Maternal Body: A Performance Piece"
Panel Four: Sharing Circle
Christine Peets, (facilitator), interactive workshop on "Breaking the Patterns: Alcohol, Substance Abuse and Depression"
2:15-2:30 BREAK
2:30-3:45 Session H
Panel One: Motherwork and Feminism
Rose Barg, (University of Toronto/OISE), "Transformative Learning Moments: Accessing Motherwork as a Site of Learning Through Artful Inquiry"
Fiona Green, (University of Winnipeg), "Feminist Mothers: Successfully Negotiating the Tension between Motherhood as ‘Institution' and ‘Experience'"
Ariella Damelin, (OISE, University of Toronto), "Dance to your own music. Speak in your own voice. Tell your own story. Connections of experiential knowledge."
Panel Two: Maternal Perspectives in Women's Writing
Lisa Pike-Fiorindi, (University of Windsor), "In the Face of the Machine and the Maternal: Writing From Free-Space"
Angela Morsley, (University of Sydney, Australia),"'Trapped for life': Negotiating the Maze of Mother and Text in the Fiction of Elizabeth Jolley"
Rosemary Gray and Siphokazi Koyana (University of Pretoria, South Africa), "Becoming a Mother: Maya Angelou and Sindiwe Mogona"
Rishma Dunlop, (York University), "Archives of the Heart: Rewriting Maternal History in the Novels of Daphne Marlatt"
Panel Three: Motherlines in Literature
Jozefina Komporaly, (University of Warwick, UK), "Motherhood, Female Lineage, Authorship: Rewriting British Women’s Theatre"
Mary McCartin Wearn, (University of Georgia), "The Unmother: Maternity in Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl"
Yi-Lin Yu, (Lancaster University, UK), "New Feminist Family Romances: Grandmother/Mother/ Granddaughter Trichotomy in Michael Dorris’ A Yellow Raft in Blue Water"
Panel Four: A Performance Piece
Heather Mains, (York University), "A Bun in the Oven: Ritual (a)rising out of erasure"
This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement
140 Holland St. West,
PO 13022
Bradford ON L3Z 2Y5