Price: $24.95
Page Count: 178
Publication Date: March 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77258-142-3
Parenting brings countless hopes and worries. But when external factors create fear and cast a shadow long and deep across motherhood, what happens to the act of mothering? Through personal and academic essays and poetry from Canada, the United States, and Palestine, these authors explore what it means to mother through times of struggle, uncertainty, danger, and change.
From doctors and professors, to writers and environmentalists, women of different ages, cultures, and backgrounds share their insights and perspectives on what it is to mother when life, society, and the very future of those you mother are precarious. Sharing ideas, best practices, models, research, and creative work, this book’s writers explore the decisions made by mothers and potential mothers in the face of violence and trauma, environmental and political upheaval, career insecurity, uncertainty in a new country, discrimination, and other barriers.
“Motherhood in Precarious Times explores through reflections and academic analyses in poems, stories, and essays how environmental, socio-economic, political, and cultural and gendered threats shape mothering. The diverse voices combine powerfully in this vital anthology that will undoubtedly shape many debates from choosing Mother Earth vs. Motherhood, to fatherhood’s role in emergent maternal independence.”
– Sylvie Hill, Writer, Poet and University Continuing Education Professor of provocative literature courses on sexuality, relationships, and female “awakenings.”
“What remarkable insights into mothering! Each author presents a different perspective using their own unique linguistic lens, including poetry, stories, and research. Through these different writing styles, characteristics of precarious times are woven into the book that definitely adds an extra element to exploring mothering. As a mother of two adult children, and a speech-language pathologist who has championed many mothers, I know this book will open up dialogue and keep up hope for all who read it.”
– Carrie L. Knight, PhD, CCC-SLP, SLP (C) is an assistant professor in speech-language pathology with a research interest in writing skill development. She has 30 years of experience working alongside families who have children with disabilities and continues to mother two adult children.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Mama, Your Bruise Is a Beautiful Colour
On the Future: A Harsh Climate for Motherhood
A 6(2) Mother Predicts Death
Using Contemplation and Motherhood to Reframe Faculty Mentoring in the Professoriate During
Challenging Times
Sophie
Invisible Disability
Fridays
“Look How Strong He Is:” Social Media Messages and the Communal Mothering of Kodi Gaines
Shoes
Parenting in the Sexual Borderlands: Thriving Despite Invisibility
Long Lines to Stave Off Suicide
Mothering Through Generations
This Night
Perceptions of Mothers’Talks and Actions with Children During and Following Periods of Civil and Social
Unrest in the United States, 2016-2017: Identifying Social Support Structures
Non-objective Poem
Othermothering: A Tradition of Support Through Times of Difficulty
After an Election
Long Walk, Painful Path, Yet Joyful: The Palestinian Happy Child Centre
Contributor Notes
Dannielle Joy Davis, Ph.D., is an associate professor of higher education at Saint Louis
University. A graduate of the University of Illinois, she is the elected chair of the American
Educational Research Association’s Spirituality and Education Special Interest Group. She
has published over sixty refereed articles, chapters, commentaries, volumes, and reviews.
Anita Dolman is a poet, fiction writer, and professional editor, and a contributing editor for
Arc Poetry Magazine. Her work has appeared in journals and anthologies throughout North
America. Her debut collection of short fiction, Lost Enough: A collection of short stories, was
released by Morning Rain Publishing in 2017.
Barbara Schwartz-Bechet, Ed.D., is the Interim Dean of the College of Education and
Rehabilitation and a professor at Salus University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has
worked in the field of education and special education for over twenty-five years, and
received her doctorate in applied behavior analysis / emotional disturbance from Columbia
University, Teachers College.
