Twenty-one scholars, including three with affiliations to York University, have contributed to the Spring/Summer 2022 issue of York University's Journal of the Motherhood Initiative (JMI).
The issue, published in April, explores the theme of "Social Work, Motherhood, and Mothering: Critical Feminist Perspectives" and features 13 articles.
Andrea O’Reilly, York University professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, is the journal’s founder and editor-in-chief.
The mission of the journal is to "promote and disseminate the best current scholarship on motherhood, and to ensure that this scholarship considers motherhood both in an international context and from a multitude of perspectives, including differences of class, race, sexuality, age, ethnicity, ability, and nationality, and from across a diversity of disciplines."
Since 1999, JMI has published two issues a year, and all issues are available in on-line open access format.
In addition to O'Reilly, a York graduate student and a York alumni have also contributed to the Spring/Summer 2022 issue:
Brenda Polar is Chola with Quechua and European roots. She is a queer student and mother of two children, completing her doctoral degree in the social work program at York University. Her academic interests involve how Quechua immigrants maintain their Indigenous identity after immigration and how to develop collaborative relationships between First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people and settlers. For the Spring/Summer 2022 issue of JMI, she is the author of "Mother, Service User, and Social Worker."
Deepy Sur, MSW, PhD, RSW, is the chief executive officer of the Ontario Association of Social Workers (OASW). She holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Ryerson University, a master’s degree in social work from York University, and PhD in social work administration from Walden University. Her research interests include interprofessional teamwork and empathy and the development of the interprofessional intentional empathy centered care (IP-IECC) theory. Most importantly, she places incredible value on her lived experiences as a racialized woman and resilience. She is a mother to two children. For the Spring/Summer 2002 issue of JMI, she is the author of "Challenge Perfectionism: An Interwoven Autoethnographic Discussion of Motherhood."
Read the full issue online.