Term Time: A Revolutionary Lexicon for Mother-demics

Description

In this performance lecture, two academic mothers working in the field of contemporary performance attempt to find a lexicon for the synchronous work of motherhood and academia. We (Lucy and Laura) are mother-demics, aca-mothers within systems of institutions. As a revolutionary gesture and resistant act, we disrupted our schedules with creative interventions, carving time in our term time to understand term time(s) for mother-demics.
Drawing on collaborations (of two) in the field of maternal performance such as Lena Šimić and Emily Underwood-Lee (2021, 2022), and critical theory exploring maternal time (Baraitser, 2009, 2017, and Putnam, 2022), we ask: what are the temporal and embodied connections between academic work (in the field of performance) and motherwork? We question maternal-demia and consider how academic work and motherwork can be synchronous. What are the synergies in the temporal registers of these things? How can we explore these by purposefully stitching them together, mapping them, layering them over each other again and again? How can they exist as a palimpsest? (This is how they are lived). In creating a co-authored lexicon, we seek to find a way of performing what we found out through poetry, conversation and speculative thinking.

Period	24 Feb 2025
Held at	Guildhall School of Music and Drama, United Kingdom
Degree of Recognition	National