Motherhood and Migration/Mobility of the Highly Skilled
Hub member Dr Aya Kitamura will be co-convening a panel Motherhood and Migration/Mobility of the Highly Skilled at the 22nd IMISCOE Annual Conference 'Decentering Migration Studies'.
You can find full details of the event here: https://www.imiscoe.org/events/imiscoe-events/2117-22nd-imiscoe-annual-conference
Here is the Call for papers information:
Panel: Motherhood and Migration/Mobility of the Highly Skilled
Convenors: Eglė Kačkutė (Vilnius University, Lithuania), Aya Kitamura (Tsuda University, Japan)
In the last two decades, research on the migration and mobility of the highly skilled has drawn attention to the mechanisms of gender dynamics and the potential to reinforce or transform gender power regimes through and by migration and mobility (Schaer, Dahinden, Toader 2017; Fresnoza-Flot and Liu-Farrer 2022; Andrikopolous, Moret, Dahinden 2023). The debate brought up a wealth of research focussing on the very heterogeneous category of ‘skilled migrants’ problematizing and rethinking the understanding of privilege and vulnerability in the context of mobility and migration. Motherhood has recently emerged as a compelling gendered social category with a power regime of its own (Apple 2006; Schmidt, et al. 2023). With this panel we seek to gain insight into ways in which motherhood structures power relationships, conceptualisations, and practices of mobility and migration of the highly skilled. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Motherhood and expatriation
- Mobility and mothers’ careers
- Mothers as tied, accompanying migrants, and trailing spouses
- Mothers as lead or primary migrants
- Mothers and mobility in academia
- Highly skilled refugee mothers
- Motherhood, mobility/migration, and race/ethnicity
- Migrant mothers and class privileges and disparities
- Highly skilled migrant mothers and the mother tongue
- Maternal citizenship and migration
- Highly skilled migrant mothers and religion
- Highly skilled migrant mothers and/in education
- Highly skilled migrant mothers and feminism and/or social activism
- Same sex highly skilled migrant mothers
Paper proposals should contain an abstract of max. 250 word, a title and the author’s university affiliation. Please submit the paper proposals to Eglė Kačkutė egle.kackute-hagan@flf.vu.lt and Aya Kitamura kitamura@tsuda.ac.jp no later than 20 September 2024.
References
Andrikopolous, Apostolos, Joelle Moret, and Janine Dahinden, eds. (2023) Cross-Border Marriages. State Categories, Research Agendas and Family Practices. New York: Routledge.
Apple, Rima (2006) Perfect Motherhood: Science and Childrearing in America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Frensnoza-Flot, Asuncion and Gracia Liu-Farrer, eds. (2022) Tangled Mobilities: Places, Affects, and Personhood across Social Spheres in Asian Migration, Berghahn Books, 2022.
Schaer, Martine, Janine Dahinden & Alina Toader (2017) ‘Transnational mobility among early-career academics: gendered aspects of negotiations and arrangements within heterosexual couples’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 43:8, 1292-1307, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2017.1300254
Schmidt, E.-M., Décieux, F., Zartler, U., & Schnor, C. (2023). What makes a good mother? Two decades of research reflecting social norms of motherhood. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 15(1), 57–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12488
Panel Convenors:
Eglė Kačkutė is an Associate Professor in French and Francophone Literature and Migration Studies at Vilnius University, Lithuania. Her research interests include transnational mobilities; mothering and migration; and representations of motherhood.
https://www.flf.vu.lt/en/institutes/arksi/structure/french/egle-kackute-hagan
Aya Kitamura is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Japanese Studies at Tsuda University, Japan. Her research interests include transcultural and translingual mothering practices as well as motherhood discourses in relation to neoliberalism and post-feminism. https://researchmap.jp/kitamuraaya?lang=en
