AMIRCI

Last updated

The Australian Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (AMIRCI) is a national not-for-profit advocacy and research group (registered in the state of Queensland) [1] and consists of a network of scholars, writers, activists, policy makers, educators, artists and practitioners whose work explores the experience of women as mothers, mothering and motherhood. [2] [3]

Contents

The organisation was founded in 2005 as the Association for Research on Mothering — Australia (ARM–A) by academic, Dr Marie Porter. It was established as a sister organisation to the Canadian Association for Research on Mothering (ARM) which was founded by Professor Andrea O'Reilly at York University. [2] In 2010 the name was changed to AMIRCI [4] to match the Canadian organisation's name change to MIRCI. [5] In Canada, MIRCI partnered with Demeter Press to produce a journal and books on motherhood. [6] [7] MIRCI has since changed its name again to IAMAS — International Association of Maternal Action and Scholarship. Like its Canadian counterpart, AMIRCI is focused on developing a matricentric feminist movement [8] [9] through furthering research into motherhood and advocacy for mothers through connection, collaboration and conversation with mothers and feminist professionals. [10]

Following the success of a first conference in 2001, [11] the organisation was formed and since 2005 has hosted bi-annual motherhood conferences chaired by a variety of female experts in their field and covering topics such as, “Motherhood in an Age of Neoliberalism and Individualisation”, [12] “Feminism for Mothers”, and, “Negotiating Competing Demands: 21st Century Motherhood”. [13] Recent keynote speakers have included Professor Andrea O'Reilly on regretful motherhood, [14] Dr Petra Bueskens [15] on the failure of the welfare system to support single mothers, Dr Renate Klein on the misogyny of surrogacy, and Professor Eva Cox on the need for a Universal Basic Income. In earlier years notable speakers have included Jackie Huggins, Maurillia Meehan Archived 13 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine and Gracelyn Smallwood. In 2018, AMIRCI founder Dr Marie Porter was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for her work as, "a researcher and advocate for the welfare of women and children". [16] [17]

Conferences showcase cross-disciplinary work with topics spanning pregnancy and childbirth, human rights violations through child removal, lactation, [18] mothering disabled children, [19] the failures of family law and the welfare system, [20] the impact of mothering on women's creative expression, representations of motherhood in literature and film and also feature performances and display of artwork such as a giant knitted placenta. [21] Leading Australian universities have hosted AMIRCI's conferences, including the University of Sydney, [22] RMIT, University of Melbourne, [23] University of Queensland, and La Trobe University in Melbourne. [24]

List of Conferences

2019 Beyond Mothering Myths:Motherhood in an Age of Neoliberalism and Individualisation, University of Sydney. [25] [26]

2017 A Feminism for Mothers [Symposium], Australian Catholic University, Fitzroy, Melbourne. [27]

2016 Negotiating Competing Demands: 21st Century Motherhood, 8th Australian International Conference, RMIT University, Melbourne. [28]

2014 Motherhood, Feminisms and the Future 7th Australian International Conference.RMIT University, Melbourne. [23]

2011 Mothers at the Margins 6th biennial Australian International Conference.The University of Queensland, Brisbane. [29]

2009 The Mother and History: Past and Present 5th biennial Australian International conference. The University of Queensland, Brisbane.

2007 The Mother: Images, Issues and Practices 4th biennial Australian International Conference. The University of Queensland, Brisbane. [30]

2005 Representing and Theorising Maternal Subjectivities 3rdAustralian International Conference. The University of Queensland, Brisbane. [31]

2002 Performing Motherhood: Ideology, Agency and Experience 2nd Australian International Conference. La Trobe University, Melbourne.

2001 Mothering:Power/ Oppression Inaugural biennial Australian International Conference.The University of Queensland, Brisbane. [11]

Publications

Related Research Articles

Dale Spender was an Australian feminist scholar, teacher, writer and consultant. In 1983, Dale Spender was co-founder of and editorial advisor to Pandora Press, the first of the feminist imprints devoted solely to non-fiction, committed, according to The New York Times, to showing that "women were the mothers of the novel and that any other version of its origin is but a myth of male creation". She was the series editor of Penguin's Australian Women's Library from 1987. Spender's work is "a major contribution to the recovery of women writers and theorists and to the documentation of the continuity of feminist activism and thought".

Marie Tulip was an Australian feminist writer, academic and proponent for the ordination of women as priests.

Vivienne Joyce Binns is an Australian artist known for her contribution to the Women's Art Movement in Australia, her engagement with feminism in her artwork, and her active advocacy within community arts. She works predominantly in painting.

Andrea O'Reilly is a writer on women's issues and currently a Professor in the School of Women's Studies at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Leach (artist)</span> Australian artist

Sam Leach is an Australian contemporary artist. He was born in Adelaide, South Australia. Leach worked for many years in the Australian Tax Office after completion of a degree in Economics. He also completed a Diploma of Art, Bachelor of Fine Art degree and a Master of Fine Art degree at RMIT in Melbourne, Victoria. Leach currently resides in Melbourne. Leach's work has been exhibited in several museum shows including "Optimism" at the Queensland Art Gallery and "Neo Goth" at the University of Queensland Art Museum in 2008, in 2009 "the Shilo Project" at the Ian Potter Museum of Art and "Horror Come Darkness" at the Macquarie University Art Gallery and "Still" at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery in 2010. His work is held in public collections of regional galleries of Geelong, Gold Coast, Coffs Harbour, Newcastle and Gippsland and the collections of La Trobe University and the University of Queensland.

Irene Barberis, is an Australian/British artist, based in Melbourne and London. She is a painter primarily, working also with installation, drawing, and new media art. She is also the founding director of an international arts research centre, and is an international curator and writer.

Australian feminist art timeline lists exhibitions, artists, artworks and milestones that have contributed to discussion and development of feminist art in Australia. The timeline focuses on the impact of feminism on Australian contemporary art. It was initiated by Daine Singer for The View From Here: 19 Perspectives on Feminism, an exhibition and publishing project held at West Space as part of the 2010 Next Wave Festival.

Lyons is an Australian architecture firm based in Melbourne. Established in 1996 by brothers Corbett Lyon and Carey Lyon, they were soon joined by third brother Cameron, Neil Appleton and Adrian Stanic, and are all now directors. Lyons is known for large commercial and institutional buildings such as the RMIT Swanston Academic Building, Melbourne, the Australian Institute of Architects (Victoria), 41 Exhibition St, Melbourne, the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra, the Central Institute of TAFE in Perth, the Queensland Children's Hospital in Brisbane, the School of Medicine and Menzies Research Institute in Hobart and the School of Medicine and Research in Sydney.

Sir Jonathan Mills, AO, FRSE is an Australian composer and festival director. He was born and raised in Sydney and has dual Australian and UK citizenship. His work includes two operas, an oratorio, a ballet, song cycles, concertos, and chamber music. He has directed a number of arts festivals in Australia, and from 2006 to 2014 he was director of the Edinburgh International Festival.

Australia has a long-standing association with the protection and creation of women's rights. Australia was the second country in the world to give women the right to vote and the first to give women the right to be elected to a national parliament. The Australian state of South Australia, then a British colony, was the first parliament in the world to grant women full suffrage rights. Australia has since had multiple notable women serving in public office as well as other fields. Women in Australia with the notable exception of Indigenous women, were granted the right to vote and to be elected at federal elections in 1902.

Karen Burns is an Australian architectural historian and theorist. She is currently a senior lecturer in architecture at the Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne.

Aileen Moreton-Robinson is an Australian academic, Indigenous feminist, author and activist for Indigenous rights. She is a Goenpul woman of the Quandamooka people from Minjerribah in Queensland. She completed a PhD at Griffith University in 1998, her thesis titled Talkin' up to the white woman: Indigenous women and feminism in Australia. The thesis was published as a book in 1999 and short-listed for the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards and the Stanner Award. A 20th Anniversary Edition was released in 2020 by University of Queensland Press. Her 2015 monograph The White Possessive: Property, Power, and Indigenous Sovereignty was awarded the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association's (NAISA) prize in 2016.

Kate Beynon is an Australian contemporary artist based in Melbourne.

Kate Just is an American-born Australian feminist artist. Just is best known for her inventive and political use of knitting, both in sculptural and pictorial form. In addition to her solo practice, Just often works socially and collaboratively within communities to create large scale, public art projects that tackle significant social issues including sexual harassment and violence against women.

Marie Porter is a researcher, writer and advocate for the welfare of women and children. She founded the Australian Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (AMIRCI) in 2001. In her role as founder and chairperson of AMIRCI, Porter has presided over multiple international conferences held in Australia. These events are attended by a network of academics, postgraduate students, artists, health professionals and lawyers.

Motherhood Studies is a recognized field of study coined by Dr. Andrea O'Reilly. It is related to maternal feminism.

The Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI) is a Canadian scholarly research and advocacy group for mothering-motherhood.

Lesley Dumbrell, born on 14 October 1941 in Melbourne, is an Australian artist known for her precise abstract geometric paintings, and was a pioneer of the Australian Women's Art Movement of the 1970s. She became known as 'one of the leading artists in Melbourne to adopt the international styles of colour field and hard-edged abstraction'.

Marie Louise Uhr was an Australian biochemist and leader in the movement advocating for the ordination of women in the Catholic Church.

References

  1. ASIC register search: Australian Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement Incorporated Retrieved 14 August 2019
  2. 1 2 Kelso, Julie-Anne; Porter, Marie (2011). "Birthing and re-birthing Down Under: From ARM-A to AMIRCI". The 21st Century Motherhood Movement: Mothers Speak Out on Why We Need to Change the Way the World and How to do It. pp. 814–822. ISBN   978-0-9866671-1-4.
  3. "How women are working towards building an enlightened future for families". Women's Agenda. 3 July 2019. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  4. NZCO and ASIC. "Search Company and Other Registers". connectonline.asic.gov.au. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  5. "MIRCI" . Retrieved 24 August 2019.
  6. "Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement". jarm.journals.yorku.ca. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  7. "Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement MIRCI" . Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  8. Westervelt, Amy (26 May 2018). "Is motherhood the unfinished work of feminism?". The Guardian.
  9. "Ain't I a Feminist?: Matricentric Feminism, Feminist Mamas, and Why Mothers Need a Feminist Movement/Theory of Their Own". MUSEUM OF MOTHERHOOD. 31 May 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  10. "November | 2013 | blue milk". Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  11. 1 2 Porter, Marie; O'Reilly, Andrea; Short, Patricia, eds. (2005). Motherhood: power and oppression. Toronto: Women's Press. ISBN   9780889614543.
  12. "CALL FOR PAPERS: Beyond Mothering Myths? Motherhood in the Age of Neoliberalism & Individualisation". Equality Rights Alliance. 22 January 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  13. Convenor, Gender Institute; convenor.genderinstitute@anu.edu.au. "Negotiating competing demands: 21st century motherhood: call for papers". genderinstitute.anu.edu.au. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  14. "Babytalk: Feminism and Mothers". ABC Radio. 28 January 2018. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  15. "Mothers And Basic Income: The Case For An Urgent Intervention". New Matilda. 23 February 2017. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  16. "Queen's Birthday Honours recipients". www.theaustralian.com.au. 10 June 2018. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  17. "Dr Marie Porter". It's An Honour. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  18. "Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia - The Queensland Board of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia". www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  19. Robertson, Rachel (May 2014). "'Misfitting' mothers: Feminism, disability and mothering". Hecate. 40 (1): 7–19. Gale   A425902462.
  20. "08 Mar 2017 - Single Parent? SingleMum.com.au! | Support Events | Mother... - Archived Website". Trove. Archived from the original on 8 March 2017. Retrieved 13 August 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  21. Lucas, Rachael (12 May 2019). "Giant placenta art installation unveiled after two-year knitting project". ABC News. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  22. "Beyond Mothering Myths? Motherhood in an Age of Neoliberalism and Individualisation". www.ticketebo.com.au. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  23. 1 2 Rogers, Megan (2 September 2015). "Motherhood, feminisms and the future". Journal of Family Studies. 21 (3): 195. doi:10.1080/13229400.2015.1120979. S2CID   146416712. ProQuest   1756184400.
  24. "Australian Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement - Conferences". mothering.org.au. Archived from the original on 5 August 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  25. "Beyond Mothering Myths Motherhood in an Age of Neoliberalism and Individualisation". 10times.com. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  26. ScienceDZ.Net. "Beyond Mothering Myths? Motherhood in an Age of Neoliberalism and Individualisation". www.sciencedz.net. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  27. "The Australian Women's and Gender Studies Association". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  28. "Negotiating Aboriginal motherhood/s in 21st century Australia | Amy Parkes | Request PDF". ResearchGate. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  29. Mothers at the Margins : Stories of Challenge, Resistance and Love. Raith, Lisa,, Jones, Jenny (Ethicist),, Porter, Marie. Newcastle upon Tyne. March 2015. ISBN   9781443879163. OCLC   913333457.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  30. Porter & Kelso (2010). Mother-Texts: Narratives and Counter-Narratives. UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN   9781443823456.[ page needed ]
  31. Kelso & Porter (2008). Theorising and Representing Maternal Realities. UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN   978-1847184566.[ page needed ]