Title: Intersections of motherhood, activism, and scholarship in the wave of neoliberalism.

• In Event: Motherscholaring: Curriculum, Activism, and Healing

Abstract

This session shares the stories of four women brought together by academic work informed by motherhood and a commitment to social justice. While these commonalities unite us, the means by which we achieve scholarship and activism vary. These intersectional identities bolster us to leverage resources to engage in scholarship and activism in spite of the neoliberal institutions we inhabit. Our methodologies and methods are informed by our training as qualitative methodologists, but we aim to privilege embodied methodologies that recognize first and foremost our humanity. We operate from a feminist standpoint (Collins, 1990; Smith, 1987) that recognizes our experiences once centers them within structures of oppression, such as the neoliberal academy. Informed by Gloria Anzaldúa’s (1985) work around theory/art and the responsibility of the researcher, we utilize autoethnography as both a methodology of research and an art. We will present our narratives in different forms to showcase our various strengths.

Authors

• Justina Jackson, Georgia State University

• Jennifer Esposito, Georgia State University

• Amber Mason, Georgia State University

• Jessica Hale, Georgia State University