City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2015 The Journal Of Mother Studies: A Peer Reviewed, International, Interdisciplinary, Open-Acess, Digital Humanities Hybrid Project Martha Joy Rose Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1111 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] THE JOURNAL OF MOTHER STUDIES: A PEER REVIEWED, INTERNATIONAL, INTERDISCIPLINARY, OPEN-ACESS, DIGITAL HUMANITIES HYBRID PROJECT by MARTHA JOY ROSE A master’s thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Liberal Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, The City University of New York 2015 ii 2015 MARTHA JOY ROSE Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 United States License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ iii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Liberal Studies satisfying the thesis requirement for the degree of Master of Arts. Barbara Katz Rothman ________________________________ ___________________________ ________________________________ Date Thesis Advisor Mathew Gold ________________________________ ___________________________ ________________________________ Date Executive Officer THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iv Abstract THE JOURNAL OF MOTHER STUDIES: A PEER REVIEWED, INTERNATIONAL, INTERDISCIPLINARY, OPEN-ACESS, DIGITAL HUMANITIES HYBRID PROJECT by MARTHA JOY ROSE Advisor: Barbara Katz Rothman Academic Journals are an established forum for educators and researchers to disseminate information within their field. Journals act as mediators of knowledge, advancing the canons within specific areas of study. There are currently two journals that focus on motherhood from an interdisciplinary perspective and one that focuses on fathers. However, none of these determine a specific foundational definition of what the field is, what it hopes to study, and how it will advance itself. Rather, these journals are general collections of a great number of things that touch on varying subjects regarding motherhood and fatherhood. This thesis argues for the creation of a fourth journal, The Journal of Mother Studies (JourMS), which will posit a foundational definition of what Mother Studies is and what a theory of this particular field would look like. This peer reviewed, international, interdisciplinary, open-access, digital humanities hybrid project, aims to serve as a nexus for ongoing explorations within the emerging field of Mother Studies as defined by the interdisciplinary study that devotes itself to the issues, experiences, topics, history, and culture of mothers, mothering, and motherhood. v Table of Contents INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 CLAIMING MOTHERHOOD IDENTITIES ................................................................................ 9 ABOUT MOTHER STUDIES AND THE THEORY OF MOTHERNESS ................................ 28 JOURMS.org: A DIGITAL HUMANITIES HYBRID PROJECT .............................................. 41 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 49 Works Cited .................................................................................................................................. 51 1 INTRODUCTION Academic Journals are a traditional forum for educators and researchers to disseminate information within their field. Journals act as proponents and mediators of knowledge, advancing the canons within a specific area of investigation. There are currently two journals that focus on motherhood from an interdisciplinary point of view. The Journal of the Motherhood Initiative (JMI), affiliated with The Motherhood Initiative for Community Involvement (MIRCI), was founded by Andrea O’Reilly in Canada, and has been a dynamic advocate for a motherhood discourse since its inception in 1999. The Studies in the Maternal Journal, affiliated with Mapping Maternal Subjectivities, Identities and Ethics (MAMSIE), was founded in England in 2009 as an online journal with an affiliation to Birkbeck, University of London. There is also one journal focused on fathers: Fathering, affiliated with The Journal of Men’s Studies, published by Sage (2003-present) The websites for each of these journals give brief descriptions of what they are. 1. JMI1is a peer-reviewed, SSHRC-funded journal that is published bi-annually. 2. MAMSIE; Studies in the Maternal2 is an international, peer-reviewed, scholarly online journal. It aims to provide a forum for contemporary critical debates on the maternal understood as lived experience, social location, political and scientific practice, economic and ethical challenge, a theoretical question, and a structural dimension in human relations, politics and ethics. Studies in the Maternal provides an interdisciplinary space to extend and develop maternal scholarship, making visible the many diverse strands of work on motherhood, 1 http://www.motherhoodinitiative.org/ 2 http://mamsie.org/studies-in-the-maternal/ 2 parenting, reproduction, pregnancy, birthing, and childcare across a broad range of disciplinary and practice boundaries. In doing so, it aims to foster dialogue about the maternal and to encourage the exploration of the unique site the maternal occupies at the potent intersection between scientific possibilities, psychosocial practices, and cultural representations 3. The Journal of Fathering,3 Fathering: “A Journal of Theory, Research, and Practice about Men as Fathers.” These journals, as well as a plethora of publications, conferences, classes, and articles constitute what appears to be an emerging field of both Mother and Father Studies. The Encyclopedia of Motherhood (2001), published by Sage Press, has a brief chapter in its three- volume text on “Motherhood Studies,” and identifies Motherhood Studies as a “significant topic of scholarly inquiry” (831). Fatherhood; Contemporary Theory, Research, and Social Policy (1995), also published by Sage Publications, and the Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinities by Michael S. Kimmel and Jeff Hearn begins with “Much has been learned about the various dimensions of fatherhood during the past few decades” (249). One of the first questions to arise in the writing of this present document was whether a new journal should attempt to bridge a gendered discussion of what is mother, or father? Or perhaps even leave those delineations behind and consider instead the word parent; or simply caregiver, or in cases of communal living, the collective? Other questions include how to approach trans-parents and those enacting fluid definitions of the gendered self and whether discussions of motherhood and fatherhood need to include a biological position? In addition, I considered whether birth and the experience and performance of caregiving are gendered or are interchangeable? This is a 3 http://www.mensstudies.info/journals/fathering/ 3 discussion that came up at the Museum of Motherhood, where I worked in New York City (2011-2014), whenever someone would ask me why there was not a Museum of Fatherhood. My answer was always the same. Until very recently, women were the birthers of children and the primary caregivers of children. For most of history (up until the last thirty years) very little has been studied, written about, or explored from the women’s perspective. Therefore I am comfortable acknowledging that fact and using it as a launching point for where humanity might direct itself in the future. We will look to the women historically, and to those enacting motherhood currently, with an expectation that definitions are changing, and humanity is evolving. In what ways that is happening exactly we do not know. We must be ready for challenges. In disseminating the exhibit “New Maternalisms” and the art of motherhood, Natalie Loveless wrote, “According to a new materialist worldview, knowledge is never simply disseminated or applied, but is rather always made by its subjects as it is in turn remaking them” (12). The metaphor of “making and being made” provides the context for this author’s assertion. The study of motherhood in the university, museum, and public sector are in process. As mothers, fathers, and children, we are making and being made by one another, all the time, all around the world. This discussion must and will be part of the over-arching goal of any new journal. Some working definitions must be established in order to have a starting place. After speaking at length with Jaipaul Lalla Roopnarine, the current editor for the journal Fathering, I realized that he was clear about his position. Fathering tackles mostly psychological issues around the theory, performance, and experience of fatherhood. I also carried out discussions with my colleagues and processed different approaches during writing workshops at The Graduate Center. In those workshops, academics specializing in music theory, accounting theory, and metacognition, who were unfamiliar with gender studies, feminist studies, or mother 4 studies, responded to proposals that included a Journal