Women's History Month: Association for Research on Mothering

Today's Women's History Tidbit:
1962: Track and field champion Jackie Joyner-Kersee is born in East St. Louis, IL.*

The Association for Research on Mothering is an organization which I've admired from afar. I failed to ante up the membership dues because I felt they were a bit steep for my pocketbook.

The Association for Research on Mothering (ARM), founded in 1998, is the first international feminist organization devoted specifically to the topic of mothering-motherhood. Our mandate is to provide a forum for the discussion and dissemination of research on motherhood and to establish a community of individuals and institutions working and researching in the area of mothering and motherhood. 

And because York University won't support their work anymore, ARM is closing on May 1, 2010. Talk about a May Day for mothers worldwide. 

ARM does some great work on behalf of mothering and mothers everywhere. I reviewed Feminist Mothering almost a year ago.  I've submitted abstracts to their call for their many journals without success, but I kept hammering away because I knew that if I could get in, I got in with an amazing piece of work. Thus a few weeks ago when I got the acceptance note for their upcoming conference in conjunction with Mamapalooza, I was in seventh heaven. But then I started to ponder the price tag for registering, traveling and housing myself in NYC for a few days. I hesitated. But over the weekend I was like, yeah, I can do this. Then the email came today. No conference. 

But the Museum of Motherhood is determined to birth this baby and I guess that means I should be determined as well. 

I'll see what the conference fees look like once the new registration site goes live in a few days. But I'm almost certain I'll be there. Because I really want to be there. In fact I feel like I need to be there.

You should read PhD in Parenting's reaction to the closing of ARM. And I won't lie. I immediately started to think, could I help save ARM? But considering the state of affairs in Illinois, I sadly need to focus on maintaining my day job and helping to save my coworkers' jobs.

Edited to add...

I realized that I failed to put any action into this baby. If you are upset that ARM is closing due to York's refusal to support them, ARM is asking you:

That any comments or questions on the forced closure of ARM be directed to the following individuals (please cc arm@yorku.ca; aoreilly@yorku.ca):
Associate Dean of Research, FLAPS, Barbara Crow, bacrow@yorku.ca
Executive Officer, FLAPS, Felim Greene, fgreene@yorku.ca
Associate Dean, External Relations, FLAPS, Moghissi Haideh, moghissi@yorku.ca
Dean, FLAPS, Martin Singer, martin.singer@yorku.ca
Vice President, Research and Innovation, Stan Shapson, vpri@yorku.ca
Associate Vice President Research, Social Sciences and the Humanities, David Dewitt, ddewitt@yorku.ca
Vice-President Academic & Provost, Patrick Monahan, provost@yorku.ca
Director, Office of Research Services, David Phipps, dphipps@yorku.ca
President and Vice Chancellor, Mamdouh Shoukri, mshoukri@yorku.ca

* Source: 2010 Women Who Dare Engagement Calendar from the Library of Congress