Subtitle: Women Write about
Motherhood and Academic Life Editors:
Elrena Evans and
Caroline Grant, foreword by Miriam Peskowitz Subject:
Women's Studies /
Education Paper
ISBN 978-0-8135-4318-5 Cloth ISBN 978-0-8135-4317-8 Pages:
288 pages Publication Date: July 2008
Listen to a
discussion about Mama,
PhD at http://www.cityvisionsradio.com
Scroll down to October 27th, where you
will see the Mama,
PhD
title, and then click on
"listen."
March
24th, 8:00pm
St Mary's College of Maryland
Cole Cinema
Jennifer Cognard-Black, Associate Professor of English and Women,
Gender, and Sexuality Studies at St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Della Fenster, Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of
Richmond
Elisabeth Gruner, Associate Professor of English and Women, Gender, and
Sexuality Studies at the University of Richmond
April
8th, 4:00pm
University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia
Coeditor Caroline Grant reading with contributors Della Fenster,
Elisabeth Gruner and Jennifer Cognard-Black
April
9th, 12:00pm
Duke University
Coeditor Caroline Grant reading with contributors Alissa MacElreath,
Jean-Anne Sutherland and Susan O'Doherty
"This is easily the most important
piece of work to date on academics and family issues, full-stop,
because the editors draw out from the authors all of the messiness, the
highs and lows, the fears and hopes, the pride, guilt, anger, love and
sense of failure and accomplishment and mainly great stories that
comprise life for so many moms who try to make it as academics. The
panopoly of supportive or unkind department chairs and colleagues, high
and low status schools, childcare arrangements that work or don't work,
supportive or non-existent partners, and perfect and not-so-perfect
children is all here."
—Bob Drago, Take Care Net
"Each writer beautifully articulates the personal details of her own
experiences. Whether working to conceal their family lives in order to
maintain professional credibility, fighting with administrators for
fair and flexible treatment, defiantly toting infants into the offices
of their advisers, or dropping out of academia to search for different
ways to combine intellect and motherhood, the contributors to Mama, PhD
offer themselves up as potential role models to women wondering how to
tackle these two demanding responsibilities."
—Katura Reynolds, Bitch
Magazine
Praise
for Mama, PhD
"I wish I had this book in the late 1970s when I was a young
untenured professor trying to teach five sections of composition
and raise a new (adopted) baby. The tales in Mama PhD could
have served as a virtual consciousness raising group for me as I toiled
away in academia. Happily the book is available today for women
trying to balance the pulls of motherhood and career."—Nan
Bauer-Maglin, author of Cut Loose: (Mostly) Older Women Talk about
the End of (Mostly) Long-term Relationships
“Well-written, personal, insightful and engaging, Mama,
PhD gives an accurate glimpse into the feelings and conflicts that
mothers in academia don't often reveal because such disclosure is felt
to be unprofessional.”—Karen V. Hansen, author of Not-So-Nuclear
Families: Class,
Gender, and Networks of Care
“All those sleepless nights and dirty diapers and baby food in your
hair-where's the discursive construction of motherhood when you need
it? It's here, in these smart, funny, poignant essays that struggle to
balance mind and body, to balance body and soul.”—Catherine Newman,
PhD, author of Waiting for Birdy: A Year of
Frantic Tedium, Neurotic Angst, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family
“Through the voices of those who have weathered the storm, Mama, PhD
provides invaluable lessons for young
scholars-both men and women-striving to navigate family and academic
careers."—Robert Drago, author of Striking a Balance: Work, Family,
Life
"This is a charming, heartfelt book that expresses the
difficulties and the joys of combining a life in academia with
motherhood. Each story is different, but the experiences and challenges
are widely shared."—Mary
Ann Mason, author of Mothers
on the Fast Track: How a New Generation Can Balance Families
and Careers
Description:
Every year, American universities publish glowing reports stating their
commitment to diversity, often showing statistics of female hires as
proof of success. Yet, although women make up increasing numbers of
graduate students, graduate degree recipients, and even new hires,
academic life remains overwhelmingly a man's world. The reality that
the
statistics fail to highlight is that the presence of women,
specifically those with children, in the ranks of tenured faculty has
not increased in a generation. Further, those women who do achieve
tenure track placement tend to report slow advancement, income
disparity, and lack of job satisfaction compared to their male
colleagues.
Amid these disadvantages, what is a Mama, PhD to do? This literary
anthology brings together a selection of deeply felt personal
narratives by smart, interesting women who explore the continued
inequality of the sexes in higher education and suggest changes that
could make universities more family-friendly workplaces.
The contributors hail from a wide array of disciplines and
bring with them a variety of perspectives, including those of single
and adoptive parents. They address topics that range from the level of
policy to practical day-to-day concerns, including caring for a child
with special needs, breastfeeding on campus, negotiating viable
maternity and family leave policies, job-sharing and telecommuting
options, and fitting into desk/chair combinations while eight months
pregnant.
Candid, provocative, and sometimes with a wry sense of
humor, the thirty-five essays in this anthology speak to and offer
support for any woman attempting to combine work and family, as well as
anyone who is interested in improving the university's ability to live
up to its reputation to be among the most progressive of American
institutions.
About the Editors:
Elrena Evans
received her MFA in creative writing from The Pennsylvania State
University, and is a columnist for Literary Mama. Her work
also appears in the anthologies Twentysomething EssaysbyTwentysomething Writers and How
to Fit a Car Seaton a Camel.
Caroline Grant
is Editor-in-Chief for Literary Mama. She holds
a PhD in comparative literature from the University of California at
Berkeley.
