Mothering-ArtAdemics: Intersecting Identities of Strength

Authors

  • Meaghan Brady Nelson Middle Tennessee State University
  • Jennifer Combe University of Montana

Abstract

Using personal narratives as a feminist approach to produce knowledge, we explore theoretical positions that acknowledge the interdependency of maternal, artistic, and academic identities. This approach, while critical of societal structures that fail to support working mothers and young children, outlines the benefits of creative practice, teaching, and mothering rather than viewing the experience as a deficit. Through interwoven personal narratives we reflect on our journeys becoming mothers on the tenure-track and reinventing our artmaking practices as academic mothers. Each subtopic outlines individual experiences, offering the reader two different paths toward applying for tenure while creating a family. Through our narratives we illustrate the ways in which our art practices grew when becoming mothers, due in part to time constraints, a desire to work without toxic art materials, and with conceptual shifts that address mothering in our artmaking. In conclusion, we argue for increased structural change to support successful mothering academics that ranges from increasing partner participation around domestic work to federally funded, mandated maternity and paternity leave.

Author Biographies

Meaghan Brady Nelson, Middle Tennessee State University

Meaghan Brady Nelson, PhD, is a mother, artist and assistant professor at Middle Tennessee State University. Her research and service centres around the ways collaborative artmaking experiences and critical visual literary can inspire social consciousness and social responsibility, along with her multilayered identity of becoming a Mothering-ArtAdemic. She collaboratively created the Kids Arts Festival of Tennessee that serves over five thousand community members.

Jennifer Combe, University of Montana

Jennifer Combe is a mother, artist, and assistant professor of art at The University of Montana where she teaches foundations and art education methods courses. Her artwork addresses the complexity of contemporary motherhood and children’s development. More of her work can be found at https://jennifercombe.com. She is invested in teacher education programs that integrate community arts and teaching from a social theory perspective. An online curriculum project she co-founded for The Caucus on Social Theory & Art Education can be found at https://naea.digication.com/cstae/Welcome/published.
Journal of the Motherhood Initiative Vol 8, No 1-2 (2017) featuring artwork by Suzanne Northcott titled "Vespers."

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How to Cite

Nelson, M. B., & Combe, J. (2017). Mothering-ArtAdemics: Intersecting Identities of Strength. Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, 8(1-2). Retrieved from https://jarm.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/jarm/article/view/40458

Issue

Journal of the Motherhood Initiative Vol 8, No 1-2 (2017)

Section

Contents

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