Mama, Ph.D: Women Write About Motherhood and the Academy

LM’s Caroline Grant is proud to announce the publication of her book, Mama, Ph.D: Women Write About Motherhood and the Academy (Rutgers University Press 2008), edited by Elrena Evans and Caroline Grant, will be released in the fall of 2008.

Mama, Ph.D. is a literary anthology of deeply-felt personal narratives by smart, interesting women both in and out of the academy, writing about their experiences attempting to reconcile bodies with brains. This anthology voices stories of academic women choosing to have, not have, or delay children. The essays in this anthology will speak to and offer support for any woman attempting to combine work and family, and will make recommendations on how to make the academy a more family-friendly workplace.

We decided to assemble this collection because it’s the book we needed when we entered graduate school and the academic job market. We wanted to know that blending family life with life in the ivory tower might be possible; we needed to know that other women were attempting this balancing act. Those women were invisible to us then, but as we began to seek out their stories, we discovered so many women living out this very challenge. We want their stories to be told, so that other women who face these difficult choices will know that they are not alone. We hope this book will encourage and inspire these women, as they try to decide if, when, and how to balance motherhood and academic work.