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2026 Calendar & MoM Membership Cooperative

A new year is unfolding at the Museum of Motherhood—and it’s already full of momentum. 🌱 From board leadership and strategy sessions to festivals, conferences, and community celebrations, 2026 is shaping up to be a year of action, reflection, and collective joy. Our latest blog lays out what’s ahead, why it matters, and how you can be part of it—from January goal-setting to a fall focus on maternal mental health. Take a look, mark your calendar, and step into the year with us.

2026 Scheduled Dates: 

  • January 14th Board Meeting and Kick-off for 2026 New Year Goals & Implementation
  • January 20th Implementation of 6 month strategy
  • February 14th Localtopia
  • March – Women’s History Month
  • April – Q2 Board Meeting
  • March 26 Leadership workshop with dinner for all team
  • March 27-29 MoM Conference 
  • May 3 is MaMaPaLooZa
  • June 2nd Board Building Party – Barbara & Mary B-Day
  • July – Pride & Q3 Board Meeting – vote in new members
  • August – Hang on in The Factory to continue the good work
  • September – Mini-Conference Maternal Mental Health
Banner promoting MoM Membership Cooperative at the Museum of Motherhood, featuring colorful illustrations and text about art, crafts, books, membership, community, and exhibitions.

MoM Membership Cooperative

We are delighted to invite you to become part of something special at the Museum of Motherhood—our Cooperative Membership Store & Shared Creative Space.

This is more than a retail visibility opportunity. It’s a living, breathing community where artists, educators, healers, organizers, and makers gather to share their talents, connect with the public, and support one another in a values-driven, cooperative environment.

Welcome to MoM’s Cooperative Space

Bring your art, expertise, objects, ideas, and meetings into a shared home where creativity and care are centered. By joining, you’ll collaborate in a vibrant real-world space while engaging with MoM’s audiences during events like Second Saturday Art Walk, Sunday Assembly, and MaMaPaLooZa Festival—as your schedule allows as well as during weekly hours.

What Participation Looks Like

  • Join MoM with a $30 annual membership
  • Sign up for 3-hour (short) or 6-hour (long) shifts—or more—during a 40-hour week
    (See Events & Calendar at MOMmuseum.org)
  • Greet visitors warmly and direct them to MoM’s signup portal
  • Share and sell your work, services, or expertise
    You keep 100% of your sales
  • If selling work by others, simply direct buyers to the item’s QR payment code and log the sale in the receipt book

What MoM Provides

  • One six-foot table, chairs, easels, and working space
  • Storage under tables (bring a labeled tote if you’d like to leave items onsite)
  • The option to leave onsite:
    • An 8 × 10 display with QR code
    • A notebook or portfolio of your work
    • Up to ¼ of a six-foot table of objects and one easel when you’re not present
      (Tables are shared among four cooperators)
  • Promotion of you and your work through MoM social media using graphics and info you provide

Why This Matters

By managing the space while you’re in it, you help keep MoM accessible, welcoming, and alive—while gaining visibility, community, and a meaningful place to share what you do best. If you believe in collaboration over competition, community over isolation, and creativity rooted in care—we would love to welcome you.

Welcome to MoM’s Cooperative Space. Please bring your art, talents, objects, and meetings. By agreeing to join this initiative you can expect:

Collaborate on a shared real estate for exhibiting and meeting clients and be part of our general audience on Second Saturday Art Walk, Sunday Assembly, MaMaPaLooZa Festival as per your availability with your great talents in exchange for a basic level MoM membership and an agreement to manage the space while you are in it.

How To Participate

Fill out online form online to participate in the Cooperative Membership Store [Click Link Left]

Contact Jamika Rollins regarding your participation: Scheduling@MOMmusem.org

877-711-MOMS (6667) (Lv a message and we will call/text you back)

2606 Fairfield Ave S St Petersburg FL Building 7

DOWNLOAD AGREEMENT PDF

A diverse group of people posing together in front of various informative and artistic wall displays, featuring the phrase 'TOGETHER WE RISE!' prominently at the top.
MoM Team with volunteers at the Museum of Motherhood

MoM Needs Volunteers and Docents

The Museum of Motherhood is more than a museum, it’s a gathering space, a conversation starter, and a love letter to motherhood in all its forms. We’re looking for a friendly, curious, people-loving human to help welcome our community into the space.

Volunteerism is the heartbeat of the Museum of Motherhood. 💛 Our work is powered by people who give their time, skills, care, and creativity to help preserve stories, spark dialogue, and build a more humane future for families. From greeting visitors and supporting events to research, archiving, and advocacy, volunteers make it possible for MoM to keep its doors open, its programs vibrant, and its mission alive. Simply put: we keep going because our community shows up.

What you’ll do:

  1. Greet visitors with warmth and make them feel at home the moment they arrive
  2. Move through the museum, offering gentle, engaging introductions to exhibits and artworks
  3. Spark curiosity, conversation, and connection throughout the space
  4. Support our Mom Shop by sharing the stories behind our merchandise and assisting with sales
  5. Invite visitors to deepen their relationship with the museum through memberships and events
  6. Educate clients about available programs and assist with application processes when necessary
  7. Maintain accurate records of client interactions and service provision in accordance with privacy policies

You might be perfect for this role if you:

  • Love art, culture, storytelling, and community spaces
  • Enjoy talking with people and making them feel seen and welcomed
  • Are comfortable engaging visitors in a relaxed, authentic way
  • Believe in honoring motherhood, caregiving, and lived experience as powerful cultural forces
  • Bring positive energy and openness into shared spaces
  • Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail for record keeping and coordination tasks

This is a role for someone who loves people, ideas, and meaningful work and wants to be part of a mission-driven, creative environment.

If you are interested in being part of our team but are not in a financial situation where you can volunteer, then we have some funds available for onsite docents in-space to greet people during our regular shifts.

✨ Volunteer (we’re grateful if you can) or $17/hour
✨ Flexible, community-centered work
✨ A chance to be part of something special

Job Type: Part-time.

Interested? We’d love to hear from you. CONTACT: Scheduling@MOMmuseum.org

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Featured

International MoM Conference Submission Extension & Keynote Announced

WE ARE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE SPECIAL GUEST ARTIST & KEYNOTE

We’re thrilled to announce Dyana Gravina as the Special Guest Artist presenter and Keynote at our 20th Anniversary MoM Conference. Dyana Gravina (They/She) is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, birth Doula and activist, mover, and community builder. She is the founding director of Procreate Project and the Mother House Studios, a pioneering arts organisation and artists studios dedicated to (m)others and primary care givers.

Dyana has developed for over a decade curatorial and activist practices that pushes the boundaries of what we showcase, where we showcase it and how people experience it. We are thrilled to welcome her to USF as part of our March ‘FUN, SEX and CRYING OUT LOUD‘ Conference March 14-16 with Art Auction March 18th in partnership with OXH Gallery. More about Dyana here.

-CONFERENCE SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED-

The MoM Academic Board is pleased to extend the deadline for this year’s conference until December 30th. So if you haven’t submitted yet – there is still time! Art, Abstracts, and Project Proposals are welcome.

This is our 20th year of sharing wisdom, knowledge and friendship at the Annual Academic and Arts MoM Conference. This year’s conference is sponsored by USF St. Pete and will be held on campus in downtown St Petersburg.

Lastings relationships are forged each year as we gather and witness the unfolding of Mother Studies and the associated multi-disciplinary field that has developed around the subject inclusive of all reproductive identities. Join us for ‘Fun, Sex and Crying Out Loud’ in 2025. CFP and Submissions Link.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND MANY BLESSINGS

However you celebrate, whatever you do, whoever you worship or love, MoM believes in you and celebrates your humanity. Our entire team works hard to make MoM’s mission rooted in community, inclusion and well-being an offering that is shared and elevated. Please visit us in the new year. Our hours are posted here and our phone and email are always on. 877-711-6667 (MOMS)

Year-end Giving! Please help us sustain operations, the nonprofit must raise the necessary funds to secure its 2025 budget which will bolster activities, pay operations costs, and help us reach the community that needs us most. Will you donate?

No amount is too small. We understand the challenges of today’s economy, the status of worldwide relations, and how great the need is for so many! Thank you for contributing.

SAVE THE DATE(S)

January 17th Noon. Join us for a Ribbon Cutting of MoM’s Escape Womb Adventure sponsored by the St Pete Chamber of Commerce in our new location at The Factory in Gallery Row. Building 7 Door B. Light refreshments will be served. RSVP please: INFO@MOMmuseum.org 877-711-MOMS (6667). Chamber event listed here.

January 21st 6-7pm in observation of mentoring month. Jim Oliver (The Village Mentor) Co- Author in Repair of The Black Family Anthology. Event Title: “Guiding Hands: Mentorship for Mothers and Families,” Description: Explore how mentorship can empower mothers and families by providing guidance, support, and tools for success. This event highlights the power of shared experiences and community connections to navigate the challenges of parenting. INFO: 727-906-7542 /INFO@MOMmuseum.org

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Art Cinema Conferences Education Events Featured Featured Artists Media MOM Conference Opportunities st petersburg The Factory, St Pete

Second Saturday Art Walk, The Modern Woman, WEDU Filming and New Board Members at MoM

We are thrilled to announce multiple exciting events at the Museum of Motherhood.

This weekend, Saturday January 13, 2024 in collaboration with Drew Marc Gallery, MoM celebrates a show of contemporary women artists, titled ‘The Modern Woman‘. As part of our Women in the Arts series interview (excerpts can be found on our instagram @MuseumOfMotherhood) see the video below. The Drew Marc opening this Saturday features the art of Andrea Dasha Reich, Blair Vaughn-Gruler, Maggie Kruger and Michelle Gordon. The show starts at 6PM- 9 with a food truck on site. Make sure to visit the Museum of Motherhood when you visit. We will be open to the public as well. Drew Marc Gallery is located in Building 8. MoM is located in Building 5 (across from the Fairground and DaddyKool Records).

This Friday, January 12th, please be our guest onsite as WEDU wraps up filming on the Museum of Motherhood, covering our move to The Factory in St. Pete and our quest to be a women’s museum in Florida with a focus on m/others. Please join us at 1PM (or a little earlier). All new and old friends are welcome! Linger for an hour, be part of a tour, speak on camera and share your thoughts! Or, just join us for some lite fair. It would be GREAT if you could let us know you’re coming either through DM on social media, INFO@MOMmuseum.org or call 877-711-MOMS (6667). We’re gonna rock it (with YOU).

More Upcoming Events

January 2024 last call to view Alexia Nye Jackson’s Mother: The Job exhibit through January 15th onsite at The Factory.

January 17th MoM welcomes the Womb Project ‘Time-based Sculpture and Documentation’ with yarn by Madison Hendry.

February 18th Feminist Pizza Party: as part of Dining for the Arts with Historic Kenwood.

March is Women’s History Month! Bringing a new exhibit titled ‘Bag Ladies‘ with the art of Judy Lyons Schneider and Alice Harrison.

March 16 & 17 – MOM Art Annex Studio Tour as part of the AEHK.

March 22-24 – Annual MoM Conference: Threads of Connection – Sorry/Not Sorry featuring keynote speaker Courtney Kessel with an interactive site-responsive installation of “Fabric of Life” and the art of the doula and Madison Hendry with group-led conversations circles at the Mother Tree with community crochet, panel discussions, conference presentations, and local health & wellness exhibitions.

May is Mothers Month! Saint Petersburg Month of Photography – SPMOP (Local Photography Exhibit) in partnership with local artists.

June- July Geography of a Woman featuring Interiors “we are all pink inside” by Christen Clifford and the Goddesses of Malta.

This schedule is sure to blossom. If you are interested in getting involved with MoM as a volunteer, partner, collaborator, local sponsor, or through workshop or other participation, or if you’d like to share your time or expertise, please contact us! To make a donation to MoM go to our donation page please.

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Art Blog Education Featured Featured Artists Internships JourMS Living Board Announcements motherhood Opportunities Queering Parenting st petersburg USF

Letter From the Founder: Joy Report & Welcome Emma

I could begin this report so many ways, but let me start by sharing a recent full-circle experience.

Last month, I received an internship application through our online portal. The inquiry came from the daughter of the woman who used to manage the MOM website as well as the MaMaPalOOza website in early 2000. So, this intern applicant turned out to be Emma Andrews, and her mother, Amy Andrews, brought her daughter to our New York location when she was only about ten years old.

This totally rocked my world. So, let me please share Emma’s bio with you now and welcome her to her summer internship with MOM. Full circle:

Emma Andrews (they/she) is entering their junior year at Binghamton University. She is a history major and mathematical sciences minor. She is pursuing a career as a public programmer in museums, but wouldn’t be unhappy teaching calculus either! They prefer to focus on all areas of history, rather than hone in on one speciality. In her free time, Emma loves to read in their hammock and is a bit of a movie buff (although with admittedly terrible taste in films). They are particularly passionate about queer studies and are looking forward to integrating that passion into their culminating project during her internship at the Museum of Motherhood.

Emma will be working this summer creating a series of resources regarding queerness in families. There will be resources created for both parents and children, in hopes of promoting and fostering more productive and respectful conversations about the queer community. The children’s presentation will feature child friendly language and concepts to help educate children on different family types and identities. Her internship portion aimed at parents will feature many of the same definitions as the children’s presentation but expanded, as well as “how to’s” regarding having respectful conversations with their own children about queer topics, such as identity, pronouns, and the potential for their own future families. Additionally, they will be putting together a short research project for those interested in the history of queer studies. Their research will be a guide through the evolution of the queer identity, with an emphasis on modern changes within these ideas, particularly through a legislative lens.

During their time at MOM, Emma hopes their project will provide help to those in need of queer resources and education, especially in states affected by anti-gay legislation. She wants these resources to be available for anyone of any age or role, and available in any location at all times. If the government or schools cannot provide the education necessary to reflect a diverse community, they want their resources to do that job.

Emma Andrews

Now for Extensive Updates! Read on:

There’s been a lot of activity at MOM over the last several months. I thought it might be good to connect everyone and keep you all updated.

Please join me in welcoming several new team members.

Deborah Gelch, a senior executive with a wealth of experience in non-profits, administration, and fundraising has joined us as our new “Strategic Advisor”. She brings with her knowledge of Salesforce, specific technological advances in CRM management, and a windfall of support including fundraising initiatives. We have been meeting weekly over the last several months and she has already imported a host of information into our database. Together, we are aiming for an October 1 fun-raiser in St. Petersburg.

Welcome too, our new website developer, Elena Rodz, who will be working on WordPress updates, our online store, and memberships moving forward. She is currently updating the MOM Team page. Please, do look for updates soon.

Kasia Nowacki joined MOM this year in the capacity of ‘Educational Liaison and Development’. To that end, she has been strategically working on multiple avenues of MOM growth internally and in collaboration with other institutions. She also facilitates tech at our monthly online events, happening the 22nd of each month.

Donna Lewis, architect, artist, and native New Yorker has joined our Executive Fundraising Board. This is hugely exciting as our goals for this active committee are top of mind and imperative for new growth. We hope to have others join Donna on this important new endeavor.

Since fall 2021, we have welcomed three onsite Residencies in October, December, and April. The summer will welcome two additional Artist Residents, and two more in the fall of 2022, plus the three last summer for a total of ten, even in the midst of COVID!

We also welcome four new interns, and another USF graduate student starting in the fall. Our summer interns are: Emma Andrews, Sarah Akomoh, Teddy Friedline, and Mary Noah. A hearty welcome to each! They will all be working on a variety of initiatives including grant writing, teaching tools, journal publication, and social media.

MOM participated in the AEHK Studio Tour in St. Pete featuring a newly built vestibule for seeing exhibits from the front entrance. As an artist, I was able to enjoy two artist-grants (one for public art in Seminole Park and one for editorial help with some of my current writing).

I filed for ‘fictitious name‘ status for MOM (DBA Museum of Motherhood) under our IRS registered 501c3 non-profit MOM Art Annex in Florida. I am also segwaying out of the Motherhood Foundation in NY, as it is redundant to maintain both. 

For the purposes of clarity: the MOM Art Annex is currently serving as our incubator of the realization of our own fully functioning, free standing museum structure. Renderings for this vision are online.

Our new ‘Educational Development” Coordinator, Kasia Nowacki and I worked for several months updating the language on the MOM website as well as our internal documents to reflect changing attitudes along with more inclusive language. Our newest intern, Teddy Friedline continues this enterprise at the JourMS website. We are grateful for these efforts.

Kasia and I also made repeated attempts to pioneer projects with Eckerd College. We also reached out to the Museum Studies Department at UF, and began research on USF degrees locally in St. Pete that might coordinate well with MOM’s ongoing activities. I attended the Eckerd College Job Fair for summer internships and we have a few ideas for bringing collaborations to the fore in the fall.

Our annual MOM Conference was a beautiful and smart gathering over Zoom this year. The theme was Creativity for a Cause and the inspiration flowed from a work-in-progress-film on miscarriage to several thematic works on home-site productions during COVID from artists and academics. Thanks to the entire Academic Board for their involvement in this!

We started a *NEW ONLINE COMMUNITY – This is a place to connect and interact. This is where we will host our annual conferences for those who want to attend remotely. This is also where we host ongoing monthly events the 22nd of each month 7-8:30PM EST (Roksana Badruddoja will be with us in June conducting an intergenerational healing workshop), and this is also where we will be building out some of our coursework.

During the month of May, Mary Noah, who is with us for the summer, and comes with some non-profit experience, worked on a rebranding kit for MOM along with a Social Media Calendar. She will pivot to new activities in the coming months.

Our new Living Board 2022 is active too, as we wave Lexy Valdes (who began her journey with us as an intern and stayed for THREE years), on her way and wish her the best with her medical school studies. Our newest Living Board members are: Zabrina Shkurti– President, Nicole Musselman– Editor JourMS, and Tracy Sidesinger who returns as our Residency Director.

Finally, I just received word about leading a workshop on New Technologies at the annual FAM (Florida Association of Museums) Conference in September. I think this will spur me on to do more research on tools available to us for online reach. I’m excited to bring updates regarding MOM to this event. The conference takes place in Miami this year and includes hundreds of museum professionals from the state of Florida.

So, what’s the action item here? Big goals here are keeping you updated, letting you witness the progress for yourselves, and bringing team members together in the spirit of MOM. 

*IF YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO YOU THINK MIGHT LIKE TO JOIN US: one of our boards, our new MEMBERSHIP community, pt staff, or MOM development, PLEASE DO SEND THEM OUR WAY: INFO@MOMmuseum.org

With Huge Warmth,

JOY!

Categories
Blog Featured Internships JourMS Literature motherhood USF

Join us in Welcoming MOMs Newest JourMS Editor: Nicole Musselman

Hello MOM Family! We ask you to join us in welcoming our new incoming JourMS Editor for 2022-2023, Nicole Musselman! Nicole has already initiated many efforts to support MOM’s latest CFP.

Nicole is part of the English Department at the University of South Florida as a Ph.D. Student and English Instructor. She is also the mother of a wonderful boy. We are so excited to see what Nicole will bring to this position this coming year!

Q. What led you on your path toward becoming an educator, and scholar and being interested in mother studies?

I was told from a very young age I may never have children. When I started my master’s degree in 2018, I began researching alternative forms of motherhood in nineteenth-century American literature. I became pregnant with my son in 2019. I continued studying motherhood from varying viewpoints in literature and the media.

Q. How did you find out about the Museum of Motherhood? 

I was first told about the Museum of Motherhood by my mother-in-law. She watched the news, saw a short featurette on the museum, and sent it to me. This was early on during Covid, and I had a newborn at home, so I went online and visited the website.

Q. What made you want to work with MOM? 

I believe that carving out a special place for mothers to come together and share their experiences is very important. The academic would, in particular, is long overdue for a journal focused entirely on mother studies, and the important roles mothers play in various fields outside of the domestic sphere.  

Q. What are your plans for your time here at the museum? Or what are you most excited to do in your new role here as the JourMS Editor at MOM? 

I am beyond grateful to be working with so many talented people interested in building a community for mothers and drawing attention to mother studies. I hope to bring new and exciting work to JourMS to provide a sense of awareness, community, and love in a world still reeling from the pandemic, Ukraine War, and continued racial inequality. 

Q. What has been your most memorable experience through your work so far? Or what are you most proud of in your line of work up until this point?

I attended a portion of the MOM conference in March and was in profound admiration of every presenter. The honesty, raw emotional responses, and crucial academic work presented were amazing. I feel honored to have been a part of that audience. 

Q. What would you consider to be one of the most impactful moments of what you consider the act of “mothering” in your life? Was it something you personally experienced or acted yourself? 

My family had to make many sacrifices during Covid to keep our newborn son safe. It was very hard not to have visitors meet our newborn, but I believe we had the right decision as he was born five weeks early, and we were unsure how he would respond if he got sick from Covid.

Q. What would you consider to be one of the most impactful moments in HERstory that has impacted who you are today?

I think the idea of embracing that women are more than mothers or can mother in different ways without their own biological children. Going through infertility made me realize that so many forms of mothers are out there and need to be recognized.

Q. What would you consider to be a fun fact about you that you would want to share with the MOM family?  

I already stated this earlier, but after being told I may never have children, I have a two-year-old son who loves dinosaurs so much it makes my heart melt.

 Q. What thoughts would you like to leave our MOM family with as you begin this new journey with them through your future work here at MOM? 

Being a mom or even trying to become a mom is hard. Never be afraid to ask for help!

Passionate about topics related to m/otherhood? Reproductive identities? Art? HERstory? Mothers Making Art? Mothers in Academia? Women and Gender Studies? Lifelong students can follow the Museum of Motherhood here, join our new ONLINE COMMUNITY, and we appreciate any and all support? Be sure to follow us on social media and check out our virtual storefront for merchandise!

If you have any inquiries regarding getting involved with MOM or are interested in being part of our Living Board, you can find out information about what being a board member entails under our About tab or clicking the link HERE: Living Museum Annual Volunteers – Join Us! – MUSEUM OF MOTHERHOOD (mommuseum.org)

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Art Classes Conferences Education Feminism gender International USF

CFP (MOM Conference 2020) Embedded in SEWSA, USF St Pete

(USF) Women and Gender Studies is pleased to host the 2020 SEWSA Annual Conference in Tampa Bay, Florida, St. Petersburg Campus Location. The Annual MOM Conference Panels will be embedded within this conference.

Friday, March 27th – Come visit the MOM Art Annex display in the Exhibition Hall at the USF St. Pete Campus!

This year’s theme—figures embodiment and diverse lived experiences as the lifeblood of resistant politics and the livelihood of building alliances across our many differences. The theme echoes the broader mission of the interdisciplinary field of Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS). With its distinctive blend of research, programming, teaching, and advocacy, WGS questions conventional wisdom, challenges the status quo, critiques intersecting gendered, sexual, and racialized inequities and injustices, and strives to create social change for more equitable, ethical, and just futures.

Our theme takes special inspiration from the work of feminists of color and their allies— including early abolitionists like Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, civil rights activists such as Fannie Lou Hamer, Septima Clark, and Rosa Parks, groups such as the Combahee River Collective, writers and teachers like Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Mitsuye Yamada, Cherrie Moraga, and Gloria Anzaldua, The Movement for Black Lives, founded by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, the #sayhername campaign, the reproductive justice movement, and the work of researchers and theorists such as bell hooks, Angela Davis, Kimberle Crenshaw, Lila Abu-Lughod, Emma Perez, Saidiya Hartman, Gayatri Spivak, Dean Spade, Jasbir Puar, Fred Moten, C. Riley Snorton, and the late Saba Mahmood, among many, many others. The work of these scholar-activists is a source of critical insight into the workings of what the Combahee River Collective called interlocking systems of oppression, and a reminder that disobeying unjust state logics and challenging administrative and other forms of violence is literally a matter of life and death, more so for some populations than for others. For this reason, so too do these trailblazing and cutting-edge activists and scholars prompt us to recall the imperatives of self-reflexivity, critical positionality, and situated knowledges in confronting inequality and injustice from a variety of intersectional and transnational perspectives.

In these ways and others, our theme invites a wide range of interdisciplinary critical engagements with the body politics of disobedience. How, for instance, do different forms and modes of racialized and gendered embodiment inform strategies of disobedience to state regulation, the criminalization and dispossession of multiply- marginalized populations, and the ongoing upward redistribution of wealth and resources under neoliberalism? At the same time, the theme invites consideration of how to better craft stronger and more capacious affinities between counterhegemonic projects, for example, between The Movement for Black Lives, disability justice activism, struggles for indigenous decolonization, trans and intersex rights, prison abolition, and intersectional feminist, queer, and anti-racist research and activism. “Embodying Disobedience, Crafting Affinities,” then, seeks to emphasize the continuing import of multi-issue politics in efforts to move beyond commodified notions of allyship towards relations of radical solidarity and mutual interdependence.

In the current historical moment we are witnessing unprecedented interest in feminism and a resurgence of activism in the same space as increasing white nationalist, anti-trans, anti-immigrant, and anti-choice rhetoric, policy, and legislation. In such a climate, this year’s SEWSA takes the opportunity to draw insight and inspiration from the past and chart a course toward different, hopefully more just—and perhaps also more queer— futures. As 2020 marks the 59th quadrennial presidential election, the centennial of the 19th Amendment, and the fiftieth anniversary of the first women’s studies program, we want to remember the ways in which women’s studies has linked theory to practice, not only to transform the present but also to know the past differently and to imagine and create a world beyond it. Women’s studies, from its inception, ranged across the disciplines, found resources where it could in the name of survival and resilience, and insisted on forms of interdisciplinary inquiry that today demand questions of gender, race, and sexuality to disrupt the naturalized status quo. Women’s and Gender Studies, at its best, embodies disobedience—to the disciplines, reigning ideas of sex and gender, the nation, racial capitalism, and single-issue politics—while simultaneously fighting to craft political and intellectual affinities that will make a difference in the world.

Categories
Conferences International manhattan college motherhood Policy Sociology

MOM Conference 2019 – April 5-6 – The Public is Invited

April 5-6, 2019

FULL CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Rewriting Trauma & Visibility: Motherwork, Pregnancy, and Birth

Keynote presentations with Khiara M. Bridges and Roksana Badruddoja. See the schedule for more information.

GENERAL INFORMATION

The international MOM Conference is an annual event that features research, scholarship, and creative collaboration in the area of Mother Studies. Each year, the academic committee organizes university experiences that are interdisciplinary and highlight scholarship in the area of reproductive justice, maternal health, feminist theory, gender studies, literature, and the arts. The conference is organized through the Museum Of Motherhood (M.O.M.) and has partnered with multiple institutions throughout the years (2005-present), including Manhattan College, USF Tampa, Marymount Manhattan College, Columbia, ProCreate Project, Mamapalooza, and ARM now renamed MIRCI to name a few.

Activities are open to the public at no cost by RSVP only: info@MOMmuseum.org.

On Saturday evening we will induct Sara Ruben into the Motherhood Hall of Fame on behalf of her work which has brought hope and healing to so many.

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Birth Blog Digital Media Internships Internships Media

Annual Academic MOM Conference, NYC 2019: Rewriting Trauma

REWRITING TRAUMA & VISIBILITY

Motherwork, Pregnancy, and Birth

Manhattan College
Bronx, NY
APRIL 5-6 2019

The MOM Conference 2019 is sponsored by the Lasallian Women and Gender Resource Center and the Manhattan College Department of Sociology

Calling all sociologists, women’s, sexuality, and gender scholars, masculinity studies scholars, birth-workers, doctors, maternal psychologists, motherhood and fatherhood scholars, artists, performers: This conference call for papers focuses on uncovering, naming and rewriting traumas of motherwork, pregnancy and birth. We especially aim to make visible those topics related to (dis)abilities and other marginalized positionalities, relying on Patricia Hill Collins’ conceptualization of motherwork as mothering that is designed for the survival and success of the next generation in the context of oppression. We recognize traumas in multiple forms, originating before, during, and after pregnancy and birth and throughout motherhood, contextualized by the intersectional identities of those traumatized. We encourage presenters to unpack the sociocultural domain and the medicalized environment within which traumas often occur, embracing and analyzing meaning-making, as Barbara Katz Rothman and others would have us do, in the areas of maternal health and well-being.

We intend the conference to serve as a site of resistance as we reframe and reconstruct the landscape of embodied trauma within motherwork, pregnancy and birth and the ongoing labor of mothers and caregivers everywhere. We recognize the scale, variance, and duration of trauma and hope to support and empower those who most need it.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Intersectional identities as the context of motherwork, pregnancy and birth traumas

Motherwork, pregnancy and birthing with (dis-)abilities, illness, and children with special needs

Biomedical and cultural discourses of motherwork, pregnancy, and birth, including issues related to marginalized identities, fertility treatment, gender, and intersex identities
Normative constructions of gender in motherwork, pregnancy and birthing

Child and maternal psychology interventions, alternative therapies, and results

Breastfeeding ambivalences, obstacles, and outcomes

Future wombs, including transplants, artificial constructions, cloning, and surrogacy

Art as healing and activism as visible resistance
Embodied resistance to socially constructed proscriptions and conventions about motherwork, pregnancy, and birth, especially as contextualized within marginalized positionalities

Narratives surrounding:

  • High-risk pregnancies, pregnancy-related illnesses, and birthing complications
  • Cesarean Section, Episiotomy and other Obstetric Violence
  • Stillbirths or Therapeutic Terminations
  • Pregnancy loss, Alternative Therapies, and Healing

Individuals conducting research, making art, working in hospital or alternative birth settings, and presentations by mothers, family members, and students as well as auto-ethnographic perspectives are welcome

All submissions for this conference should be considered for submission to the Journal of Mother Studies (JourMS), an academic, peer-reviewed journal devoted to Mother Studies. You may also submit for the conference only if you wish. Abstracts must include a title and 50-150 words for individual papers, panels, and other submission types (e.g. performance, media, music). Go to MOMmuseum.org and look for the “Conference Submissions” tab or submit a word doc. to info@MOMmuseum.org by Dec. 1

The international MOM Conference is an annual event that features research, scholarship, and creative collaboration in the area of Mother Studies. Each year, the academic committee organizes university experiences that are interdisciplinary and highlight scholarship in the area of reproductive justice, maternal health, feminist theory, gender studies, literature, and the arts. The conference is organized through the Museum Of Motherhood (M.O.M.) and has partnered with multiple institutions throughout the years (2005-present), including Manhattan College, USF Tampa, Marymount Manhattan College, Columbia, ProCreate Project, Mamapalooza, and ARM now renamed MIRCI to name a few.

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A Museum of Motherhood – What’s That? [Click]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT: Martha Joy Rose, Director Museum of Motherhood
207.504.3001
Info@MOMmuseum.org
A Museum of Motherhood – What’s That?

St. Petersburg, Florida January 26, 2018 – When it came time for a move, there were several things motivating artist and founder of the Museum of Motherhood, Martha Joy Rose. She is the mother of Bucs football center Ali Marpet and his older brother, Brody Marpet, who is part of a new startup called Gaspar’s Rum. For Rose, family rules. Since both boys relocated to St. Petersburg, Joy as she is called, decided to follow.

Formerly a rock and roller, concert promoter, and academic, her band, Housewives On Prozac toured the country from 1998 – 2008. In 2002, she started the Mamapalooza Festival, which moved to 25 cities promoting moms who rock internationally. Along with her band, the women of Mamapalooza enjoyed appearances on Good Morning America, CNN, and multiple media outlets including the New York Times and the London Times. Thousands attended events in New York, London, Sydney, and Toronto. In 2010, Rose turned her attention to creating the first ever Museum of Motherhood on the upper east side of Manhattan. Relationships with local universities resulted in internships with students interested in studying the art, science, and history of mothers, mothering, and motherhood. M.O.M. as it is known, became a destination point for twenty thousand travelers during the museum’s 29 months on East 84th St., which was in part sponsored by Gymboree.

“I have an ongoing interest in how mothers contribute to the social and economic fabric of American culture as well as the individual struggles women who are mothers experience,” says Rose. The museum is currently located in Rose’s live/work space in a 1920s bungalow across from St. Pete High School.

Rose is speaking at the Tampa Bay Breastfeeding Task Force Annual Conference on Feb. 9th. More info here [CLICK]

The second annual “I Love MOM” Conference takes place on February 16 & 17th on the USF campus in partnership with the Museum and the USF Women’s and Gender Studies Department. International artists and academics present on a variety of topics. Free and open to the public: RSVP info@MOMmuseum.org.

The museum doors will also be open to participants in the Artist Enclave of Historic Kenwood’s annual Artist Studio Tour. The free two-day event is on Saturday, March 17 10-5 and Sunday, March 18 12-5. Copies of the edited collection, the Music of Motherhood (Demeter Press 2018), and select pieces of art, by Ms. Rose will be for sale and on display.

The museum is located at 538 28th St. in St. Pete. Tours are by appointment only and can be made online or by calling 207.504.3001. Exhibits feature a pregnancy vest (which tour participants can try on), the laminated cereal box dress worn by Rose when touring with Housewives band, and assorted art, antiques, ephemera, and teaching tools. More information is available at MOMmuseum.org

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Schedule Your Visit to MOM in January 2018 [Click]

VISIT MOM: Help us celebrate ONE YEAR at our new location in St. Pete! The M.O.M. Art Annex has enjoyed visitors from all over the country. To schedule a visit with us in January 2018 sign up online here or write us: info@MOMmuseum.org

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By checking the above box, I agree that I am participating in a tour offered by Motherhood Foundation Inc. at the Museum of Motherhood (MOM) Art Annex at 538 28th St. N. in St. Petersburg, Florida during which I receive information and instruction about mothers, fathers, and families from an interdisciplinary perspective. I recognize that with any activity, unexpected physical injury can occur, and I am fully aware of these kinds of risks and hazards. I agree to assume full responsibility for any risks, injuries or damages, known or unknown, which I might incur as a result of participating on the premises of MOM. I knowingly, voluntarily and expressly waive any claim I may have against owners, volunteers, other participants, and the non-profit Motherhood Foundation Inc. for injury or damages that I may sustain as a result of participating in activities at MOM. I agree that Motherhood Foundation Inc. at the Museum of Motherhood (MOM) Art Annex and its agents may use any image, photograph, voice or likeness, in its promotional materials and publicity efforts without additional compensation. I further understand that by participating in the photography or filming, I release Motherhood Foundation Inc. at the Museum of Motherhood (MOM) Art Annex and its representatives, licensees, employees, photographers, and their designees from any and all liability for any violation of any privacy or proprietary rights. I have read the above release waiver of liability and fully understand its contents. I voluntarily agree to its contents. I voluntarily agree to the terms and conditions stated above.

CONFERENCE: Our second “I ❤ MOM” Conference” takes place on February 16-17th in collaboration with the USF Women’s and Gender Studies Dept. and made possible by a ResearchOne grant. We hope you’ll join us. The event is open to the public through pre-registration. We are excited to feature keynote speaker Andrea O’Reilly and a book launch of the new edited collection, Music of Motherhood by M. Joy Rose, Lynda Ross, and Jennifer Hartman on Friday evening Feb. 16th. Write us at info@MOMmuseum.org.

COMMUNITY: The local Historic Kenwood Artist Enclave has been busy organizing community events, including the Arts Walk coming in March. The new enclave motto “where art lives” is particularly salient considering we really do live and work at the museum.

RESIDENCIES: Thus far, M.O.M. has hosted three residencies. In January, artist and activist, Christen Clifford arrived as our first guest and spent two weeks editing her latest work. She returned again in July. Also, we saw the first summer Spirited Woman Residency with Dawn Louise Parker who has been hard at work on her manuscript titled Forty-Seven Days of Love. In October, we welcomed Hannah Brockbank who joined us for a two week residency. Hannah is a poet hailing from Sussex, England. Her pamphlet Bloodlines will be published by Indigo Dreams in 2017 and she is a Kate Bett’s Award winner (2016). Read more about our residencies here [LINK]

LIBRARY: MOM is proud to announce that it now has the complete Demeter Library onsite!!

EXHIBITS: Try on a pregnancy vest, view anatomically correct dolls, see art from around the world, and experience a new historical display about women’s work in the home.

INTERNSHIPS: We currently have several calls out to local college students for internships for the spring of 2018. Our high school intern, Andres’ has been with us since the spring and is a St. Pete High School senior. He is hard at work cataloging our library and creating a new student exhibit for January 2018. We welcome one new intern in January as well. We’re looking forward to introducing you to her.

ONLINE: In July of 2017, according to our google report 4,239 conducted searches and found us online. We are happy and proud that people are thinking about us. We hope that we can continue to expand in our new location. If you have ideas or want to get on board, please write Museum Director: Martha Joy Rose at MarthaJoyRose@gmail.com Introduction to Mother Studies classes will re-launch with a new partnership sometime within the next six months – stay tuned.