Mothering from the Field: The Impact of Motherhood on Site-Based Research

• In Event: 1429 - Informal Discussion Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 9: Qualitative Methods

Abstract

The heated national conversation about gender equality and women in the workforce is something that women in academia have been concerned with and writing about for at least a decade. Overall, the conversation has focused on identifying how women in general and mothers in particular fair in the academy as a whole, as well as offering tips on how to maximize success. Aside from a long-standing field-specific debate in anthropology, rare are the volumes focusing on the particulars of motherhood’s impacts on how scientific research is conducted, particularly when it comes to field research.

Our book --Muhammad & Neuilly. 2019. Mothering from the Field: The Impact of Motherhood on Site-Based Research. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press-- combines individual narratives with theory in order to pack as much punch as possible in our advocacy for policy and paradigm changes. Following its publication, we look to further discuss how mothers can change the ways in which we conduct field research in sociology. We also would like to extend the discussion to other care taking activities, as well as a more diverse range of parenting perspectives

Authors

• Melanie-Angela Neuilly, Washington State University

• Bahiyyah Miallah M. Muhammad, Howard University