Mother of Invention: How Our Mothers Influenced Us As Feminist Academics and Activists





Price: $24.95

Page Count: 197

Publication Date: June 2013

ISBN: 978-1-927335-17-8

Mother of Invention: How Our Mothers Influenced Us As Feminist Academics and Activists is an interdisciplinary collection that combines feminist theory with life writing to explore the diverse ways that mothers, whether or not they themselves identity as “feminist,” inspire feminist consciousness in their daughters and sons. It features creative and scholarly contributions from feminist academics, activists, writers and artists from different educational backgrounds, places and walks of life. While not an exclusive celebration of maternal relations, this collection provides an antidote to matrophobia and mother-blaming by critically exploring and affirming the myriad of challenges and complexities that constitute motherwork. It explores how the mothering of feminist daughters and sons intersects with issues of gender, sexuality, dis- ability, ethnicity, racialization, citizenship, religion, economic class, education, and socio-historical location. Collectively these essays explore the centrality of intergenerational matrilineal narratives in shaping feminist consciousness, they deconstruct dominant ideologies of patriarchal motherhood and womanhood, and they challenge the notion that there is a formulaic way to raise feminist daughters and sons, or a singular “correct” way to engage in feminist maternal practice.

Introduction:

“Our Book’s Invention” by Vanessa Reimer and Sarah Sahagian

Poem:

“Alarm” by Tracy Royce

Chapter One:

“Happy Birthday, Mom!” by Gary Pelletier

Chapter Two:

“Feminism as Practice: Valuing a Feminist Motherline in the Age of
Neoliberalism” by Melinda Vandenbeld Giles

Chapter Three:

“‘Tell Them You’re a Mexican,’ and Other Motherly Advice” by
Karleen Pendleton Jiménez

Chapter Four:

“The Bungalow Mystery: Me, My Mother, and Nancy Drew” by Donna Sharkey

Chapter Five:

“Mothering, Paid Work and Activism – Complementary Dimensions of a Common Vocation” by Rebecca Jaremko Bromwich

Chapter Six:

“It’s About 1000 Miles from Oaxaca, Mexico to San Antonio, Texas and About 2000 Miles from California to Indiana” by Angelica Duran

Chapter Seven:

“A Life Not Lost” By Allison Weir

Chapter Eight:

“A Matrilineal Narrative: My Chinese Mother and I” by Evelyn Chan

Chapter Nine:

“M/Aligning Mother: Queering & Feminist-ing Matroreform” by Joani Mortenson

Chapter Ten:

“Carrying Generational Baggage: How Crises of Physical and Mental Health Shaped Me as a Feminist Psychologist” by Diana Milillo

Chapter Eleven:

“’The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon’: The Unexpected and Enduring Promise of My Mother’s Kitchen Teachings” by Deborah Schnitzer

Chapter Twelve:

“Matriarchal Mothering of a First-Generation Feminist Academic” by Phyllisa Smith Deroze

Chapter Thirteen:

“A (Christian) Feminist’s Thoughts on Religious Mothering, Sexual Purity, and Pat Robertson”
by Vanessa Reimer

Chapter Fourteen:

“Lentils in the Ashes: Excavating the Feminisms in our Motherlines” by Janice Okoomian

Chapter Fifteen:

“I Love You, Mom: One Daughter’s Journey Toward Appreciating Her Mother With the Help of Maternal Theory” by Sarah Sahagian

Chapter Sixteen:

“Impressions of My Mother: On Willfulness and Passionate Scholarship” by Rachel O’Neil

Vanessa Reimer is a PhD candidate in the Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies at York University, Toronto, Canada. Her research interests include feminist studies in religion, girlhood sexuality, and mothering.

Sarah Sahagian earned her undergraduate degree in history and gender studies from Ontario’s Queen’s University. She then went on to complete her MSc in gender from the London School of Economics. Sarah is currently a PhD candidate in gender, feminist and women’s studies at York University and feels fortunate to be able to call Dr. Andrea O’Reilly her supervisor. Sarah was born and raised in Toronto, the same city she resides in today. She also has one of the coolest mothers in the world, who will even watch teen movies with you if you ask her and looks a good ten years younger than her actual age.