[ecrea] Call for Papers: Motherhood and creative practice

Motherhood and creative practice: Maternal structures in creative work
School of Arts & Creative Industries
London South Bank University
June 1-2, 2015

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

Professor Bracha L. Ettinger Marcel Duchamp Chair and Professor of 
Psychoanalysis and Art at the European Graduate School

Professor Mary Kelly Distinguished Professor and Head of the 
Interdisciplinary Studio Area in the Department of Art at UCLA
Professor Faith Wilding Professor Emerita of Performance at SAIC; and a 
Visiting Scholar at the Pembroke Center for Feminist Research at Brown 
University, Providence, RI

Conference Discussant:

Professor Griselda Pollock, Director of Centre for Cultural Analysis, 
Theory, History, University of Leeds, UK

Motherhood and creative practice: Maternal structures in creative work 
is an international and interdisciplinary conference that addresses 
ongoing debates about hospitality, solidarity and encounter as concepts 
in creative practice, and how they relate to contemporary issues of 
mothering. Mothering involves commitment to creative balance and 
combining everyday chores. We are interested how practitioners combine 
art and mothering, activism and mothering, academia and mothering, 
science and mothering, mothering and allomothering.
The conference will look at practice where the creative exploration, 
writing and theory about the mOther cannot be separated from one 
another. Ettinger reveals the intricate connections between critical 
theory on maternal and creative practice. According to Vigneault, the 
porous spaces of work that engages with the maternal as concept presents 
passageways which allow the viewer and reader to move through and 
between the various levels of text and image, theory and art, in a 
constant shift between modes of production (2009:69). There is a 
gradual, yet sustained increase in creative practice which, starting 
from the challenges posed by the above concepts, explore the maternal in 
various encounter-event formations. The conference will also look into 
female experiences and sexual lifestyles that explore the encounters of 
infertility, medical intervention, adoption and fostering, queer 
mothering and childlessness by choice or not. We invite scholars and 
artists to also explore the creative embodiment of intergenerational 
trauma and the complex territory of mother-daughter relationships, and 
bring into dialogue social, scientific and artistic perspectives.

The conference will also encompass the exhibition “Alternative 
Maternals” curated by Laura Gonzalez, a curated performance section led 
by Faith Wilding’s performative reading of her memoirs, and a 
post-graduate discussion room. The post-graduate room will be enriched 
with performative texts, films, visual and audio works (we strongly 
encourage postgraduate students to send proposals and abstracts).

This conference aims to reflect on theoretical, methodological and 
artistic work that may throw light on motherhood and creative practice. 
We welcome submissions from scholars, students, artists, mothers and 
others who research in this area. Cross-cultural, interdisciplinary and 
comparative work is encouraged. We are open to a variety of submissions 
including academic papers from all disciplines and creative submissions 
including visual art, literature, and performance art/performative 
lectures. We invite papers in English of 15 minutes length, with 
possible topics including but are not restricted to the above 
description. We welcome abstracts and proposals for practice-based, 
creative presentations (300 – 400 words + up to 3 images for practical 
presentations+ 100 word bio) on a broad range of approaches to the above 
and related topics.

Abstracts and Proposals are to be submitted no later than February 20th, 
2015, to Dr Elena Marchevska at (marcheve /at/ lsbu.ac.uk). Proposers will be 
informed by 5 March 2015 whether their proposal has been accepted.



---------------
ECREA-Mailing list
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier and ECREA.
--
To subscribe, post or unsubscribe, please visit
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
--
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
Chaussée de Waterloo 1151, 1180 Uccle, Belgium
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
---------------