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Queering the Vampire Narrative offers classroom-ready original essays that continue our explorations of vampires as representations of the cultural Other, which builds on the work of our previous texts. The editors argue, ultimately, the vampire is a queer icon, infinitely blurring the boundaries of identity and cultural norms and queering even the most seemingly stable notions, such as life, death, humanity, and monstrosity. The Vampire is the undead monarch of subtextual articulations of Otherness, especially queer behaviors and desires, offering explorations of the AIDS epidemic, the destabilization of ideas of fixed and stable sexuality, the search for community and chosen family, and the issues of individual and generational trauma. In current fictions, vampires are coming out of the coffin and the closet, identifying as openly queer and often created by queer writers, artists, and directors and bringing the subtext to the surface of the narrative. This volume seeks to create a dialogue about the impact and importance of the vampire on queer identity and queer theory and to answer the questions of why the vampire is such a compelling queer icon and what visions of vampires articulate about our ideas surrounding issues of sexuality, sexual orientation, sexual behaviors, and desires.
Queering the Vampire Narrative offers classroom-ready original essays that continue our explorations of vampires as representations of the cultural Other, which builds on the work of our previous texts. The editors argue, ultimately, the vampire is a queer icon, infinitely blurring the boundaries of identity and cultural norms and queering even the most seemingly stable notions, such as life, death, humanity, and monstrosity. The Vampire is the undead monarch of subtextual articulations of Otherness, especially queer behaviors and desires, offering explorations of the AIDS epidemic, the destabilization of ideas of fixed and stable sexuality, the search for community and chosen family, and the issues of individual and generational trauma. In current fictions, vampires are coming out of the coffin and the closet, identifying as openly queer and often created by queer writers, artists, and directors and bringing the subtext to the surface of the narrative. This volume seeks to create a dialogue about the impact and importance of the vampire on queer identity and queer theory and to answer the questions of why the vampire is such a compelling queer icon and what visions of vampires articulate about our ideas surrounding issues of sexuality, sexual orientation, sexual behaviors, and desires.
Fabulating Futures for Higher Education
Inspired by those who mothered before and through the COVID-19 pandemic, this is a book about, for, and with those who live different embodiments of academic mothering—mothers, othermothers, academic mothers, and mothering academics. In this book, mothering is defined broadly, encompassing those who are biologically or legally mothers with children; those who are “not-mother” but who nonetheless understand and practice mothering; those who do identify as mothers but not as women; and all those who take on mothering roles in academia and beyond.
Through poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction, image and text, the authors in this edited book creatively explore academic mothering through their unique lived experiences, illuminating three ideas that comprise the three sections of this book: mothering as practice, mothering in precarity, and mothering as relational. Through considering—and in many cases, writing about and through—their own mothering practices, this diverse collection of authors critique the systemic failures of academia in the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, fabulating new possibilities that envision a future in which mothering is valued and supported in (and by) higher education.
Through poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction, image and text, the authors in this edited book creatively explore academic mothering through their unique lived experiences, illuminating three ideas that comprise the three sections of this book: mothering as practice, mothering in precarity, and mothering as relational. Through considering—and in many cases, writing about and through—their own mothering practices, this diverse collection of authors critique the systemic failures of academia in the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, fabulating new possibilities that envision a future in which mothering is valued and supported in (and by) higher education.
Fabulating Futures for Higher Education
Inspired by those who mothered before and through the COVID-19 pandemic, this is a book about, for, and with those who live different embodiments of academic mothering—mothers, othermothers, academic mothers, and mothering academics. In this book, mothering is defined broadly, encompassing those who are biologically or legally mothers with children; those who are “not-mother” but who nonetheless understand and practice mothering; those who do identify as mothers but not as women; and all those who take on mothering roles in academia and beyond.
Through poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction, image and text, the authors in this edited book creatively explore academic mothering through their unique lived experiences, illuminating three ideas that comprise the three sections of this book: mothering as practice, mothering in precarity, and mothering as relational. Through considering—and in many cases, writing about and through—their own mothering practices, this diverse collection of authors critique the systemic failures of academia in the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, fabulating new possibilities that envision a future in which mothering is valued and supported in (and by) higher education.
Through poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction, image and text, the authors in this edited book creatively explore academic mothering through their unique lived experiences, illuminating three ideas that comprise the three sections of this book: mothering as practice, mothering in precarity, and mothering as relational. Through considering—and in many cases, writing about and through—their own mothering practices, this diverse collection of authors critique the systemic failures of academia in the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, fabulating new possibilities that envision a future in which mothering is valued and supported in (and by) higher education.
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This work is situated between the world of trees so lovingly depicted by Richard Powers in his epic tome The Overstory (2018) and Maria Puig de la Bellacasa’s, Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More than Human Worlds (2017). Weaving narrative, memory, and poetry, the author attempts to connect the human and non-human as she found them during the COVID-19 pandemic and the lessons she learned along the way, including how much we humans could learn from trees.
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Drawing on theories of kinship, care, and affect, we use speculative fiction to invent a world where universities have, without irony or thought, begun evaluating people based on how much and for whom they care. In this dystopian world, universities make ‘care’ a pillar of success and, subject to state and accreditation oversight, evaluate the caring capacities and productivities of their staff, faculties, and administrations. When care is bounded and treated as a commodity within existing hierarchies, performance of care becomes about demonstrating institutional fealty. This mandatory care reifies existing power structures that capitalize on addressing short-term loss and trauma at the expense of redressing ongoing and permanent needs, such as those of people with chronic illness or parenting responsibilities. In line with dystopian critiques of education illuminating horrors of education policy and terrifying ‘utopian’ visions of education gone-wrong, this speculative fiction imagines how care can and will go wrong in neoliberal institutions unless (or even as) we relentlessly unthink understandings of care and unlink care from institutional policies and procedures.
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Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a point of disruption that forced me to interrogate the practices of both mothering and being an academic, this chapter turns to poetry as a form of artful inquiry into my experiences with/as both. As a partner, a mother of two children, and a tenured associate professor, the pandemic brought to light the challenges of work/life when there was no clear distinction between ‘work’ and ‘life.’ Writing this collection of poems cultivated a vulnerable space for me to work through the grief I experienced as I stumbled through the collisions of mothering/academia; it also provided the opportunity to pause and appreciate the unexpected gifts that burst forth. The photos within were taken during the pandemic as I documented my/my family’s experiences.
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IN THIS CHAPTER, I EXPLORE QUEER SINGLE PARENTING DURING THE COVID-19 GLOBAL PANDEMIC – AS A TEACHER AND AS A RESEARCHER, PARENT AND PARTNER, QUEER AND RURAL MIDWESTERNER – THROUGH A SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND VISUALS.
IN ACADEMIA AND US SOCIETY, MY QUEERNESS IS THE IDENTITY OFTEN CONSIDERED THE MOST MARGINALIZED. HOWEVER, (QUEER, SINGLE) MOTHERHOOD HAS MOST AFFECTED THE DIRECTION OF MY LIFE. I STARTED QUARANTINING IN APRIL 2020 WITH MY THREE CHILDREN, AGES 26, 20, AND 15, MY MIDDLE CHILD’S GIRLFRIEND (AGE 19), AND MY PARTNER-TURNED-SPOUSE. THE POLITICAL BORDERS, AND THE BINARIES OF IDENTITIES AFFECTED MY CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE BOUNDS OF THE PANDEMIC ITSELF, AND OTHER ONGOING TRAUMAS INCLUDING ASYLUM CASES AND NATURAL DISASTERS.
USING AUTO-ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODS, AND ILLUSTRATED USING VISUALS, I OFFER AN ANALYSIS OF BORDERS, BINARIES, AND BOUNDARIES AS I EXPERIENCED THEM (AS A QUEER, SINGLE, MOTHER) DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC FOR EIGHTEEN MONTHS.
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The purpose of this autoethnographic study is to bring more awareness to the ways that the Strong Black Woman (SBW) trope has influenced Black women mothers in academia. I chose autoethnography because I analyzed my lived experience, using Patricia Hill Collins’ (2002) “Matriarch” stereotype, and discussed how that experience is connected to cultural norms (Gallardo et al., 2009). This stereotype questions Black women’s role as mothers and blames them for the downfall of their households, and on a larger scale, their community. Due to this undue pressure, Black women mothers feel that they must be strong at all times. Within this book chapter, I explore how the trope affected me during the pandemic while I was on the doctoral journey. In addition, the data for this book chapter derived from my private journals. I selected journal entries from March 2020, the beginning of the pandemic, to May 2021, the completion of my doctoral studies. The analysis of the journal entries revealed how the SBW trope caused various emotions including guilt and fear. However, I also felt affirmed by other Black women. Although I did not allow myself to express my needs as a mother, when I needed them, Black women were there. The SBW trope is still prevalent, but Black women are continuing to fight against it and telling our stories. I hope that my story will help change the narrative about how Black women mothers can be strong and resilient, and we are also vulnerable.
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As a millennial woman, I am right in the age sweet spot where announcements for pregnancies are rampant throughout my social media feeds. Gender reveals and lavish baby showers dominate my scrolling, and while the soft color palettes will often temper everyday stresses, there was a time in my life not so long ago where seeing these posts brought nothing but pain. Miscarriages, unlike viable pregnancies, are not accompanied by parties and themed decorations. Miscarriages are rarely announced at all. The miscarrying mother often suffers in silence, isolation, and uncertainty, and during the Covid-19 pandemic, all three were compounded. In 2020, I suffered a miscarriage with my first pregnancy. This piece explores miscarriage through my own experience that occurred not only while I was a full-time doctoral student and instructor in higher education, but also in the midst of a global pandemic. Using Rosi Braidotti’s (2020) notion of too-much-ness and a cathartic self-interview, I confront my miscarriage experience head-on, provoking emotional turmoil as well as developing closure. My goal for this chapter is to, above all, bring the topic of miscarriage into the light and provide a sense of community, a metaphorical “I see you,” for other women who have suffered pregnancy loss. The grief is suffocating, isolating, and unbearable at times, but we can work through the too-much-ness together.