What Is the Role of Motherhood in the Public Domain?

The roles of mothers across the public/private divide have long been contested and negotiated. How have women leveraged their identities as mothers to assert change in the public sphere? Beyond their achievements, what are the costs borne from these sacrifices? How has motherhood been instrumentalized or weaponized, and whose motherhood counts and whose is discounted? This talk will bring together three speakers to discuss the ways mothers assert agency in public domains and discourses. Their research and experiences - focusing on Argentina, Bangladesh and Egypt - provide insight from across geographies of the Global South on past and present, cross-generational, women’s experiences with public work. This talk is part of On Motherhood and its Shadows, an NYUAD Arts & Humanities Research Kitchens Initiative Panel Members Dina M. Siddiqi, Clinical Associate Professor, Global Liberal Studies, NYU Maria Adela Antokoletz, President of International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED) Mona Anis, Writer, Editor, and Translator Moderated by Zaynab El Bernoussi, Visiting Assistant Professor of Social Research and Public Policy, NYUAD