“Mothers Under Fire: Mothering in Conflict Areas” examines the experiences of women mothering in conflict areas. The aim of this collection is to engage with the nature and meaning of motherhood and mothering during times of war and/or in zones experiencing the threat of war. The essays in the collection reflect diverse disciplinary perspectives through which scholars and field practitioners reveal how conflict shapes mothering practices. One of the unique contributions of the collection is that it highlights not only the particular difficulties mothers face in various geographic locations where conflict has been prevalent, but also the ways in which mothers display agency to challenge and negotiate the circumstances that oppress them. The collection raises awareness of the needs of women and children in areas affected by military and/or political violence worldwide, and provides a basis for developing multiple policy frameworks aimed at improving existing systems of support in local contexts.

Tatjana Takševa is an Associate Professor at the English Department and the Women and Gender Studies Program at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Canada. She has published articles on motherhood and consumerism, motherhood and teaching, intensive mothering practices, as well as Renaissance literature and multiculturalism, cross-cultural communication and digital media. Her current research is focused on the recent Balkan war, the enforced impregnation of women in the rape camps, and mothering children born of rape. She is currently working on genocidal rape, motherhood and the discourse of national identity on the Balkans. She is a member of a research team working on wartime rapes and transgenerational trauma in post-WWII Germany and post-conflict Bosnia, and a member of the Central and Eastern European Studies Research Group – Groupe de recherche en études de l’Europe Centrale et de l’Est at the University of Ottawa. She has presented her research on the Bosnian rape camps at a number of national and international public and scholarly forums.

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Arlene Sgoutas is an Associate Professor and Director at the Institute for Women’s Studies and Services at Metropolitan State University of Denver in Denver, CO. Her research and teaching interests are focused on feminist interventions in international relations with an emphasis on women’s movements in the developing world.

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