Breaking News: Palin Adopted by Academics

The following CFP (call for papers, for those not indoctrinated) has been posted:

An Edited Collection by Demeter Press



The Palin Factor:

Political Mothers and Public Motherhood in the 21st Century



Please see link for more informaiton

http://www.yorku.ca/yfile/archive/index.asp?Article=11551



Editors: Andrea O'Reilly and Deirdre M. Condit



The nomination of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as the Republican party Vice

Presidential nominee in the 2008 U.S. president election has initiated a public

conversation about the meaning and depiction of Sarah Palin and her role as a

publicly elected, working "hockey mom."



Despite Palin's active embrace of her "hockey mom" image, her public motherhood

remains enigmatic. The election of women to public office has been a central

goal of the women's movement precisely because the voices and experiences of

women and mothers have been, from the outset of our

democracies, simply absent. Whether or not Sarah Palin continues in national

public life following the 2008 election, she is a breakthrough figure for

public women who mother small children. Moreover, Palin's national candidacy

offers an opportunity for public and academic discourse about what it means to

be an elected, and thus public, representative of other women and wage earning

mothers. This edited collection seeks to inaugurate a timely,

interdisciplinary, theoretical and critical discussion of the Palin phenomenon

as an iconic representation of public motherhood. Topics include but are not

limited

to:



Media representations, interpretations or responses to Palin's motherhood;

Public discourse on Palin balancing her work as Governor or Vice Presidential

candidate and being a mother; Her role as a public mother of a child with

disabilities; The impact of her as a wage working mother on voters; Her status

as a policy making mother on disability policy; Palin as an icon for

conservative, Christian-identified non-wage working mothers; The evident

conflict between Palin's self-identification as a Christian Conservative, whose

values include "traditional gender roles," and the juxtaposition of her evident

work and family life style; The sexualization of Palin among white,

conservative, working men and its impact on their discourses about mothers and

motherhood; Her transformational role as the "head of the family," and her

husband's public transformation as the "little man" at home; Discussions of

public or party rhetoric about "working mothers"; The conflicting responses

among liberal women's groups concerning Palin's status as a working-mother

feminist; The commodification of the "hockey" mom identity in politics; Palin's

public/private mothering conflicts; Public displays and deployment of the

motherhood trope; Racialized responses to Palin's mothering style and messages;

Public life and the possibilities of "intensive

mothering"; Palin and political motherhood and the politics of Motherhood; The

transparency of public mothering; in the Palin case; Feminist discourse on

Palin; Sexism, Mother Blame in Politics; Mothers in Politics/Mothers as

Politicians; Public representation of and responses to Palin as the mother of a

teen mom; Political tokenism and mothers; Sexuality, motherhood and politics;

Gendered responses to Palin as mother and as politician; Progressive versus

conservative positioning of mother politicians; The Republican deployment, use

and misuses of Palin (Palin as a sacrificial lamb); Palin and Mothers' Rights;

(Mis) readings of Palin as Pro-Mother; Palin and the (new?)

conservative/religious right feminism; Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin.



Please submit a 250 word abstract and 50 word bio February 1, 2009 to



aoreilly@yorku.ca

(Accepted chapters (of 15-18 pages in length) due July 1 2009)



Demeter Press c/o

The Association for Research on Mothering (ARM)

726 Atkinson, York University

4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3

Phone: (416) 736-2100 x60366 FAX: (416) 736-5766

Email: arm@yorku.ca

Discuss amongst yourselves...