Conference Program

In Their Own Words

MoM Conference 2025 / Organized by first name… MOMmuseum.org/ JourMS.org 877-711-MOMS (6667)

Alicia Campos – In Person

The Fabric Womb and Sobadas. Transmission of Knowledge and the Right to Practice Science as a Feminist

My paper aims to show the power of women knowledge as creators, producers, and maintainers of life, showing how childbirth and motherhood are part of women’s ancestral and traditional knowledge that challenges science, as a science that is of patriarchal authority and acts as Western metaphysical construct that imposes expertise over women’s bodies.

Amy Wagner, Susan Smith, Amy Crocker – Zoom

Graphic Pregnancy

Graphic pregnancy: The art of reproductive comics and construction/deconstruction of pregnancy and motherhood will focus on the graphic representation of reproductive labor, from conception to birth, experienced by birthing persons portrayed in comic art and graphic novels.

Anabella Lenzu – Zoom

Listen to Your Mother: A testimony of my creative process, motherhood, and research

“Listen to Your Mother” is a choreographic research project dedicated to the lives of women-identifying artists who are immigrant mothers living in New York City. The project seeks to capture these underrepresented women’s stories to inspire dialogue, appreciation, and social support instead of the ongoing prejudice endured that is historically placed against mothers and women in the arts.

Angelica Martinez & Catalina Alzate – Zoom

Moms Have More to Offer

This series of posters comments on the role of mothers as users and workers in the Gig Economy. “Moms have more to offer” is a reference to the multiple labor burdens that mothers already experience in a society that is structured upon gender and racial inequalities. The Gig economy positions mothers as yet another form of human capital, that apart from providing undervalued care work in their intimate contexts, can now export that labor to racialized others.

Anne Van Leeuwen – Zoom

Swimming Lessons

This submission is a fictional short story told in the first-person. It explores maternal love and loss in context of the increasing politicization of gender identity and the continued policing of feminine and/or maternal sexuality. While the story focuses on the intimate and personal narrative of the protagonist, her struggle is juxtaposed with an other form of maternal loss in order to highlight the singularity and incommensurability of each struggle.

Aspen Culbertson – Zoom

The Mother, the Vote, and the Costume:  How suffragists created an identity through clothing 

The mid-nineteenth century was a time of great change for the American people. Amongst all these changes women of the time were fighting for their rights. The fight for the vote would be long and arduous with the campaign officially starting in July 1848 and ending in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th amendment. Those original suffragists were women from many backgrounds united by the desire for equal rights. Those suffragists created a common fashion identity to bind them together spiraling into the popular fashions of the future. 

(Beth) Elizabeth Charles – In Person

Framing Pregnancy Loss as Transformation: A Narrative Approach

The depth of the profound physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual transformation that takes place during matrescence is finally being embraced, but that same understanding is not usually extended to other experiences along the reproductive spectrum including pregnancy loss such as miscarriage and stillbirth. Miscarriage is usually understood as a minor loss along the normative reproductive journey that results in the outcome of a healthy, living baby. Instead, I would like to frame pregnancy loss as a transformational experience and suggest that pregnancy loss is an opportunity for personal transformation. This provides opportunities for bereaved parents to interpret their loss as a significant life event and construct new meanings or narratives as a result.

Blair Donohue – Zoom

Negotiating Autonomy in Birthwork: The Impacts of Professionalization and State Regulation on Midwifery and Reproductive Justice

This presentation explores how efforts to regulate and professionalize midwifery, while often framed as safety measures, can instead restrict access to culturally competent care and disproportionately harm marginalized communities. State licensure frameworks impose biomedical norms that push unlicensed providers underground, reduce workforce diversity, and criminalize community-based practices. Through the stories of three midwives navigating legal grey areas—some choosing to forgo licensure altogether—I examine how restrictive policies exacerbate inequities.

Blessing Ogunyemi – Zoom

Sexual Pleasure as Women’s Right: Detangling Shame, Body Image, and Heteronormative Expectations of Female Sexuality

Sixteen years have passed since the release of the 10th Anniversary Edition of Eve Ensler’s groundbreaking work, The Vagina Monologues. During this time, conversations about the vagina have shifted from private, “hushed” tones to more public, open, direct, and inclusive dialogues. These critical and political discourses have given rise to powerful global movements like V-Day. However, the censorship and policing of women’s bodies and sexuality persist worldwide.

Caroline McAuliffe – Zoom

“Other” and a Mother

Exploring art through costume and play using narrative scenes that explore the identity-shifting experience of motherhood, its myths, and her desires and discomforts within the role elucidated through photo and collage work. I was an “other” before I was a mother. My work is focused on the material of the family because it is the largest and most dynamic part of my life and identity—even more so than being queer. I make art with the help of my wife and my child, who are active participants in my work and part of an ongoing collaborative process.

Cassandra Scherr – In Person

Birthing Little Gods: How Akwaeke Emezi Uses Queer Christen Imagery to Craft Kinder Gentler Worlds

In a 2019 interview with Teen Vogue, Nigerian author Akwaeke Emezi tells us, “Step one of making a new world is that you have to be able to imagine it. I think sometimes that is where the storytellers come in.”  With these words, Emezi calls our attention to one of the key ways that we, as individuals and as a society, “birth” the worlds we see, experience, hope for, enjoy, and sometimes fear. We create maps of our potential futures through the stories we create and engage in.

Courtney Kessel – In Person

Cyborgs and Chimeras: 12 Artists on the Subjective Maternal

The co-curated exhibition, Motherhood Mediated, celebrates the chimeric and transformative nature of life with a child that permanently alters one’s reality. The twelve artists in this exhibition create artwork that is demonstrative of this subjective positionality. Whether highlighting the accumulations of toys and household objects, collaborating with their children, or subtly demonstrating play and collaboration as part of life and art, these artists have strategically chosen to acknowledge the maternal as part of their practice.

Cristin Millett – In Person

Speculation on the Time and Place of the Womb

From the ancient Greeks’ “wandering womb” to medieval theories of seven chambers, the uterus has long been shrouded in mystery. Once blamed for hysteria, it’s now being redefined by cutting-edge artificial womb technology, transforming our understanding of birth and gestation. This presentation explores the evolution of the uterus–from wild beast to futuristic ectogenic machine.

Cynthia White- In Person

Placenta Cultural Practices

For all humans, our biological origin story begins in the womb, tethered to a temporary organ – the placenta – via the umbilical cord. Stories about the human placenta have been conveyed, depicted, and enacted through ceremony for thousands of years. Some of the earliest records of placental ceremony date back to Egyptian times, circa 3,400 BCE. Today, cultural practices around the placenta share interesting similarities, as well as unique differences, but a common thread throughout is the significant role the placenta holds as the guardian of the child’s spiritual and physical health.

DaKysha Moore & Elijah Onsomu – Zoom

Waiting on the pregnancy test results: A content analysis of the two-week wait videos on YouTube

Across the globe, more couples are starting families with the help of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), especially the use of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). It is estimated, in the United States, slightly more than two percent of all babies born are through ART (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2024). One of the most difficult times for couples trying to conceive using IVF is what is called “the two-week wait.” The two-week wait is described as the period from the “transfer of the embryo to the pregnancy test.”

Dyana Gravina – In Person

Keynote Performance – Embodied Histories: Medicalised Sexuality, Childbirth and Subversive Bodies 

For the launch of her first book, Embodied Histories: Medicalised Sexuality, Childbirth and Subversive Bodies (2025), Dyana Gravina presents a performance ritual that embodies their somatic and transhistorical research into the political and physiological connections between childbirth and sexuality. Through art, somatic practices and writing, it wants to subvert conventional notions of femininity and masculinity, seeking to reclaim demonised behaviours, body autonomy, and radical subjectivity.

Holly Ittel – In Person          

Artwork (Short Film)

Artwork statement: We prepare ourselves for motherhood, gathering our fears and anxiety, “buckling up” for the new journey. The postpartum experience can unravel everything you thought you knew about motherhood, and push your psyche to a breaking point.

Ionat Zurr, Cynthia White & Cristin Millet – Zoom

Ex-Utero: A Sculptural Exploration of Ectogenesis

“Ex-Utero: A Sculptural Exploration of Ectogenesis” is a provocative examination of human reproduction and the extraordinary possibilities of ectogenesis. This collaborative project merges scientific inquiry with artistic methodologies to investigate the human placenta as a transient and temporary organ. The project envisions a future where pregnancy occurs entirely outside the body and relies on a mechanized, man-made version of the placenta.

Isabella Young, Shriya Gaur, Pavita Singh – In Person

 “From Pandora to Empowerment”: The reproductive storytelling of three graduate students at Columbia University 

This autoethnographic study examines how three graduate students at Teachers College, Columbia University construct their reproductive identities amid societal expectations, health challenges, and personal aspirations. Under the guidance of Dr. Aurélie Athan, Isabella Young, Pavita Singh, and Shriya Gaur use narrative analysis within identity theory to explore how reproductive choices intersect with self-concept and social pressures.

Jennifer Case (use book image) – Zoom

We Are Animals

Jennifer Case will discuss and read from her most recent book, We Are Animals: On the Nature and Politics of Motherhood (Trinity University Press 2024), which uses personal essays following an unintended pregnancy to explore feminism, evolutionary biology, and reproductive justice examining key moments in her life where her experience as a woman in twenty-first-century America came in conflict with her experience as a child-bearing mammal. In doing so, the essays offer a balm for women who have struggled in silence over childbirth trauma, conflicted responses to motherhood, or a deeply felt intuition that what their bodies needed as mothers did not match what society provided.

Jess Fedenia – In Person

Involution

‘Involution’ is an exploration of the many lives a female body can experience. The essay came to me during a time that I was mourning my failed quest to become a gestational carrier. It’s a reflection on the oftentimes paradoxical paths we wander. The essay is influenced by the forces at play when nature and capitalism tangle, a commentary on how we as women are nature: immensely powerful and yet we are conditioned to dim and shrink ourselves, suffocated by insidious (albeit unsustainable) systems.

Jill Wood & Martha Joy Rose – In Person

Behind the Scenes of MoM’s Escape Womb: Designing a One-of-a-Kind Adventure Through Conception, Gestation, and Birth
An intimate behind-the-scenes look at the design, planning, and creation of MoM’s Escape Womb Experience—a groundbreaking health, wellness, and education adventure that is the first of its kind focused on conception, gestation and birth.

Julianne Gladstone – In Person

Lullabies in Exile 

Lullabies in Exile is an abridged version of Julie Gladstone’s MFA thesis Four Corners, Four Angels, Ten Stones, Ten Veils written as part of her thesis requirements for OCAD University’s IAMD MFA program and published in book form by Out and About Press (2022). Written as a mixed media, auto-ethnographic art book, this text takes the form of a series of letters written by Gladstone to her daughter, her ancestors and three different rivers. Through the interdisciplinary combination of knitting, embroidery, walking, relationship building with rivers, singing, dreaming, performance and video editing, this work images into being metaphysical time travel in which healing across multiple time frames and spaces is possible.

Kaitlin Solimine – Zoom

Motherhood as a Portal: Voiced Expressions of Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum under the Constraints of Capitalism and Patriarchy,

Motherhood as a Portal: is a compilation of caregiver voices as presented on the Postpartum Production podcast and featured in the M(other)ing exhibition (forthcoming) at Virginia Tech’s Perspective Gallery.

Khora Lab: Regan Moss & Aurélie Athan  – ZoomFostering Maternal Ecopsychological Identity During the Climate Crisis

The transition of matrescence encompassing the physiological and psychological changes of pregnancy and motherhood, is a well-documented period of heightened vulnerability. This critical stage of human development can be further complicated by external stressors, such as environmental crises, disasters, or geopolitical conflicts, which not only threaten physical health but also exacerbate emotional distress, displace social support networks, and create existential uncertainty about the future.

Laura Bissell – Zoom

Re-enactment, Re-performance, and Feminist Mimesis in Maternal Performance

The performances created by mother/artists examined in this paper use mimesis (in various ways) to rewrite the patriarchal, stereotypical and apolitical narratives of motherhood through mimetic doublings, parodies, and re-enactments.This paper asks: how can performances of matrescence have a ‘productive’ relationship to the real, not reproducing the same but inviting a questioning and challenging of narratives of maternal experiences? I argue that re-performing experiences of matrescence enact feminist mimesis and in ‘making strange’ (Šimić and Underwood-Lee, 2021: 21) re-imagine and expand understandings of the term.

Maaya Modha-Patel – Zoom

“I Just Need A Minute”: Adapted MBCP-4-NHS mindfulness support to improve perinatal mental health in diverse communities

Mental health issues are common during the perinatal period and are known to disproportionately affect ethnically diverse women. Mindfulness has shown mental health benefits in groups of White women during pregnancy, but limited evidence exists to understand its effects on perinatal mental health for Black and South Asian pregnant women. This study explored the impact of a 5-week mindfulness programme with culturally sensitive adaptations on the perinatal mental health outcomes of a group of Black pregnant women.

Miranda J. Brady – Zoom

Devouring and Negligent: The Mother Archetype in Children’s Literature and Film at the Millennial Turn

This paper examines variations on devouring and negligent mothers in children’s books and filmic adaptations around the millennial turn of the 2000s. It explores Matilda (1988), Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997), Coraline (2002), The Willoughbys (2008),and The Descendants (2015). It argues that these books and films, all published or released within a 30-year span around the millennial turn, encouraged young millennial and Gen Z audiences to project onto the stories their own feelings of alienation in relation to their families as well as an ambivalent struggle for independence from their mothers. Exploring psychoanalytic ideas of childhood and Carl Jung’s idea of the mother archetype, the paper encourages readers to approach these media texts and the mother blame they perpetuate through a critical lens. As the young readers of the millennial turn are now adults, it is important to consider the literature and media that helped shape their imaginaries.

Miranda Mestas Vatterott – Zoom

Decolonizing How We Feed Our Children 

How we choose to nourish our children is a deeply personal decision, influenced by cultural norms, media representations, family expectations, and medical advice. Among the numerous choices parents make in raising their children, the methods of feeding often evoke strong emotions. This presentation seeks to address body feeding with sensitivity and understanding for all parents.

Molly Sherman, Emily Fitzgerald – Zoom (with Live Exhibit at MoM)

Reproductive Reproductions

As 2025 Flickr Foundation Research Fellows, we are curating a comprehensive collection of images from Flickr titled Reproductive Reproductions, which aims to encompass the broad spectrum of reproductive experiences in one cohesive archive. Our goal is to foster critical dialogue surrounding reproductive care and to promote understanding across reproductive experiences such as abortion, miscarriage, infertility, queer conception, motherhood, disability, IVF, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. By placing images that represent abortion and reproductive rights alongside those that depict infertility and parenthood, we visually highlight the often invisible, interconnected nature of these experiences in an individual’s life

Pam Cohen & Jess Ringgenberg – In Person

Title: The Science of Modern Motherhood: Matrescence as a Workforce Imperative

Matrescence—the lifelong evolution of motherhood—shapes identity, cognition, and career trajectories, yet remains overlooked in workplace structures. Recognizing it as a critical workforce phenomenon unlocks leadership, retention, and sustainable transformation. The Five Phases of Matrescence provide a framework for integrating support at every stage, giving mothers the language and preparedness to navigate their careers while making the invisible weight of caregiving visible, valued, and better integrated into modern institutions.

Pavtia Singh – In Person

Redefining Privilege

A poem exploring my uncertainty about whether I want to become a parent and the reasons underlying this uncertainty. The poem also examines what it means to be able to provide for the next generation.

Portia Yuran Li – Zoom

Drama Therapy: The Importance of Play Within Moms 

I will be presenting an essay titled “Drama Therapy: The Importance of Play Within Moms,” which outlines the key concepts and applications of drama therapy, particularly its role in addressing the significance of play for mothers.

Regan Moss – Zoom

On Becoming: A Sex-Working Mom

Scant work has explored how sex-working moms experience motherhood and make sense of their maternal role. The EMERGE Study (Exploring Maternal Health Experiences and Maternal and Reproductive Identities in the Sexual Gig Economy) explores factors such as maternal identity and maternal mental health needs among sex-working moms across the US. We conducted semi-structured in-depth individual interviews with former and current sex workers who identified as moms or maternal figures. Sex-working moms detailed their experiences coming into motherhood, navigating their maternal role, defining motherhood, negotiating stigmas, and defining/redefining motherhood for their children.

Sarah Hunter – Zoom

The Miracle

I have been closely associated with birth centers in the Tampa Bay area, capturing countless birth stories. Each birth is a profoundly moving experience and I still find myself in tears at every one. Through the lens of the camera, I tell the stories of these beautiful moments, providing families with cherished memories. In addition to birth photography, I also capture maternity and newborn photos. I also work as a birth doula to support moms through their birth journey.

Sarah McCarthy – Zoom

The Song is the Spark: How Group Singing Can Empower Mothers on Their Journey to Self-Actualisation

The transition from individual to mother, or matrescence, can be a vulnerable time for mothers as they experience intense life changes (Adlington et al., 2023). However, group singing can provide mothers with the opportunity to connect with their individual, authentic voice. With appropriate encouragement, the mother’s voice can act as a conduit to personal and maternal empowerment. Group singing may also assist mothers on their path to self-actualisation as outlined by Maslow (1943).

Sierra Clark – In Person

Museum of Motherhood Health, Wellness and Education Committee

Sierra M. Clark Author, Life Coach, Empowerment Speaker and Community Builder. Born in St. Petersburg Fl is an exception to the disparities of her upbringing. As a heARTist Sierra work goes beyond the canvas, touching the soul and shifting perspectives. Her art invites you into an experience that transcends traditional (living) art. This has driven her to create art that challenges societal judgments and give people, especially adults, a space to rediscover their true beauty within themselves.

Sonia Meerai – In Person

Performance (evening comedy)

My stand-up comedy performance will highlight themes of fertility and reproductive care through my personal experience. Throughout my performance, I will illustrate the ways in which feminist perspectives on humour can nurture dialogue on challenging and highly stigmatized experiences of reproductive care including infertility, pregnancy loss, and reproductive health. By interweaving a feminist analysis as I engage the audience in stand-up comedy with physical objects connected to my experience.

Stability X – Zoom

multi hyphenate

In any work that I make I like to use materials around me. I very rarely like to go inside a store and pay full price for any materials. I feel like art can be an affordable career if you look in the right places for the materials. I enjoy using found objects in my work, found from newspapers, found from magazines, found from off the side of the road. I like capturing the stories of motherhood and sharing them in ways not often if at all considered.

Stacy Robin – In Person

Mixing Science, Music and Motherhood
Stacy Robin is an award-winning singer/songwriter/percussionist from Los Angeles. She has toured and performed in conferences and events such as SXSW in Austin. Her music has been used in commercials, on broadcast and internet radio, and in TV, and Film (recently in A Million Happy Nows). She has also donated the use of her music to support and performed at fundraisers many worthy causes (veterans, animal rescue, medical research, cancer support, green expos for conservation, and women’s empowerment organizations).

Susan Smith, Amy Crocker, Amy Wagner –  Zoom

Pregnancy and Birthing with a Disability: A Narrative Literature Review

Summarizing current research literature related to pregnancy and birthing for individuals with a physical disability with articles on this topic.  Areas discussed include access and barriers to care, contraception, fertility, unmet labor and delivery needs, pain management, satisfaction with and quality of care, healthcare provider knowledge, physical activity, and mental health.

Tracy Marie Taylor – In Person

Ars Machina Vitae: A Reproductive Odyssey 

“Ars Machina Vitae: A Reproductive Odyssey” is an interactive art piece that merges narrative storytelling with advanced AI technology, offering a “choose your own adventure” experience that delves into the nuanced journeys of individuals facing infertility. Developed using cutting-edge AI tools, including ChatGPT for narrative generation and Mid-journey for visual design, this project represents a synthesis of human creativity and artificial intelligence.

Zsuzsa Berend & Elly Teman- Zoom

Having creative fun with assisted reproduction

A Tale of Two Surrogates, A Graphic Narrative on Assisted Reproduction, co-authored with Elly Teman, was gestated and born during somewhat differently turbulent times, during the COVID pandemic. We came up with the idea of translating our respective ethnographic research findings to a graphic format.

POLITICS OF MOTHERHOOD | USF STUDENT PANEL IN-PERSON PANEL

1.Tiao Xie

2.Kirsten Lee

3.Emily Hernandez

4.Olamide Awoyemi

Whetley Earnest – MoM High School Intern: Poetry reading – My Mother’s Womb Won’t Stretch for Me

POSTCARDS TO MY FUTURE SELF Amanda Bartles –Lactation consultant.Activity onsite Sunday Lunch.