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The film offers a longitudinal exploration (over a five-year period) of a mother-daughter relationship, cross-cutting between the Philippines and Ireland. It is narrated by mother and daughter as they negotiate their relationship, having spend 15 years apart and are recently reunited through a migrant ‘family reunification’ policy. It captures the often invisible and unexpressed emotions and dynamics set in motion by long distance motherhood in the context of migration.

In 2011 we hosted a digital media competition for artists working on the themes of motherhood, care and labour. The winner was: ‘Underbelly’, by Christine Wilks. This is a moving and complex work of digital fiction, about a woman sculptor who is carving in stone on the site of a former colliery in the north of England. As she carves, she is disturbed by a medley of voices, including her own internal dialogue, an articulation of her innermost fears and desires. As she chips away at the stone, other voices begin to emerge, telling the stories of women who worked underground in the pits, hauling rock in squalid, harsh conditions. Runners up were Marie-Josiane Agossou & Esther Jones for The Order of Things, Hester Jones for Keep Still and Look Left Look Right, Hollie McNish for Night-Time Walkers Day-Time Workers & WOW, and Marina Velez for Mother: ing and Strowis Motherhood.

All work can be viewed at: here.

During 2011 we collaborated with Enemies of Good Art on two radio shows.

27^th May 2011:
Motherhood, Servitude and the Delegation of care.
This show addressed issues of labour, social class, capital, care and the maternal. Lisa Baraitser was joined by Stella Sandford, Mirca Madianou, Imogen Tyler and Gail Lewis to discuss the privatisation of maternal labour, and the diverse ways ‘maternal care’ has been, and continues to be delegated and shared. Our discussion ranged from Marxist Feminism through to the creative ways that mothers in the global south are continuing to parent their children while providing maternal labour for mothers in the global north.

The screening was followed by a panel discussion bringing together the film maker, Lisa Gornick, and commentators about queer parenting within psychosocial, legal, childhood and sociological studies: Lisa Baraitser, Lisa Gornick, Daniel Monk, Karin Lesnik-Oberstein and Sasha Roseneil.

This was a major two-day international conference that coincided with the opening of an exhibition of paintings at the Freud Museum by the scholar, artist and psychoanalyst, Bracha Ettinger who gave a keynote talk, alongside Professor Adriana Cavarero and many other internationally recognized scholars and psychoanalysts. It was co-hosted by Centre CATH, University of Leeds. You can find the programme and abstracts here.

This day-long workshop included readings and debates by poets, novelists, digital writers and academics working on the maternal in contemporary literature. It was co-hosted by De Montfort University. You can find the programme here.

This day-long meeting focused on maternal representation, and maternal aesthetics, combining workshops, performances, large and small group discussion, academic and artists presentations and a public lecture given by Professor Griselda Pollock. It was co-sponsored by the Birkbeck Institute of Social Research, the Centre for Gender Studies, University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Press. You can find the programme here.

This event included a public conference on maternal subjectivities and identities, a workshop for MaMSIE members, and a film-showing followed by discussion with the film-maker Sarah Pucill. It was co-hosted by the Birkbeck Institute of Social Research. You can find the programme here.