Radical Mothering in Europe: Everyday Forms of Resistance 

Radcliffe, University of Warwick / hybrid, 26 April 2024

[The Call for Papers and registration form are now closed.]

European nation-building and colonial expansion has always relied on the regulation of reproductive labour and the hierarchical categorisation of bodies and forms of family-making. The stigmatisation of mothers was and remains a central strategy to govern minoritised groups under the modern European ideological framework. Yet, the research agendas that seek to address this (e.g. SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective 1997; Gumbs et al. 2016; Ross and Solinger 2017) are disproportionately focused on North America and to a lesser extent the Global South. There is a dire need for research spaces interrogating the European roots of antinatalist policies and giving visibility to minority mothers’ everyday forms of resistance in the region. 

The Radical Mothering Research Collective is one attempt to redress this imbalance. Understanding mothering as performed by a diversity of people regardless of reproductive role or gender identity, we aim to give space to everyday acts of mothering which defy modern/coloniality in Europe.

Our launch conference is taking place at the University of Warwick as well as online on Friday, April 26th, 2024. Registration for in-person and online participation is open until April 12th and free of charge.

We are honoured to welcome Anna Horn, certified doula and maternal health scholar-activist, as our keynote speaker, and many other brilliant contributions discussing birth and other experiences of care from queer, anti-racist, anti-fascist, and anti-carceral perspectives. The full programme is available here.

In-person participation will be at the Radcliffe, Space 2, from 8am to 7pm. The conference is intended to be inclusive and accessible to all. We value children's interruptions and disruptive power, and they are welcome in all spaces. Nursery spots are now all filled, but a room with a fridge is available in Space 4 for babies, children, and chest/breastfeeding participants. We kindly ask all in-person attendees to refrain from using perfume out of consideration for people with sensory processing sensitivity.

If you wish to receive updates about the conference or the Collective in general, you can subscribe to our mailing list and follow us on social media.

 

Conference organising committee: 

Sarah Werner Boada, University of Warwick 

Patricia Hamilton, University of York 

 

This event was made possible with the generous support of the Department of Sociology, the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, and the Institute of Advanced Study of the University of Warwick, the Department of Sociology of the University of York, and the British Sociological Association.