Precarious Academic Labour and Motherhood (Part I)

The Precarious Academic labour and Motherhood conversations is the second event organized by the art/mamas as part of the PLOT art residency at Access Art Gallery.

In this exploratory conversation, Matilda Aslizadeh, Damla Tamer and Maria Anna Parolin invited Elisa Baniassad, Sarika Bosse, Annabree Fairweather, Sunny Nestler, Magnolia Pauker and Terra Poirier to consider how does the absence of predictable, stable employment in academic institutions affect working mothers and caregivers? What are the particular pressures and possible responses to economic precarity when situated within the demands of ensuring stability, security, and meeting the material needs of children and others in our care? Are there ways in which we can create broad-based networks that support collective organizing and caretaking beyond normative models of the nuclear family?

About the speakers:

Elisa Baniassad (she/her) is a mother of two, an Associate Professor of Teaching at the University of British Columbia, and has the privilege of being the chair of the Status of Women Committee for the UBC Faculty Association.

Sarika Bosse is a long-term contract academic in the Department of English Language and Literatures at UBC.

Annabree Fairweather (she/her) is the Executive Director of the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of British Columbia (CUFA BC).

Sunny Nestler is an artist, writer and humble guest living on unceded Coast Salish territories belonging to the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaʔɬ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations. Sunny teaches drawing and science courses at ECUAD, where they have been a non-regular faculty member since 2013.

Magnolia Pauker is a Lecturer in Critical and Cultural Studies at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design on traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.

Terra Poirier is an interdisciplinary artist working with pinhole photography, artist books and installation.

Art Mamas acknowledge the generous support of Access Gallery, the Canada Council for the Arts, VIVO Media Arts Centre, and the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of British Columbia (CUFA BC) for making this project possible.