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Motherhood, feminisms and the future

In July 2014 the Australian Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (AMIRCI) held its seventh international interdisciplinary conference at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. The conference explored, critiqued and responded to contemporary issues relating to motherhood, through a matri-centric lens. Such a focus grew in response to perceptions that second wave feminism has overlooked maternal issues, concerns and challenges. The articles within this special edition of the Journal of Family Studies represent papers given at the conference and embody the presenters’ diversity of topic and origin. From Keynote speaker Fiona Green’s address on reconceptualizing motherhood and Carla Pascoe’s paper exploring motherhood in Australia since 1945, to Julie Stephens’ ruminations on the ‘outsourced self’, from Angela Clark’s and Fleur Summers’ analyses of women as academics, mothers and artists, and Sophie Brock’s integration of maternal and disability studies (to name just a few) the works within this text provide timely and rigorous approaches to maternal studies. AMIRCI is a non-profit organization interested in promoting research into motherhood and related areas, including maternal subjectivities and identities, cultural representations and differences. This valuable field of research seeks to raise critical awareness of the particularities and complexities of mothering embedded in Australian society. Its membership is predominantly composed of scholars but it welcomes writers, artists, activists, professionals, groups, agencies policy makers, educators and people interested in promoting feminist mothering.