Encyclopedia of Motherhood

Andrea O'Reilly, PhD, is Associate Professor in the School of Women's Studies at York University. She is author, editor, or co-editor of more than a dozen books on motherhood, including Redefining Motherhood: Changing Identities & Patterns (1998), From Motherhood to Mothering (2004), Mother Matters: Mothering as Discourse & Practice (2004), Motherhood: Power & Oppression (2005), and Feminist Mothering (forthcoming, 2008). Over the last nine years she has received thirteen Social Science Humanities Research Council of Canada grants including ten SSHRCC conference grants, one 3-year SSHRCC journal grant, and two 3-year SSHRCC standard grants. Her research projects include a 3-year SSHRCC funded research project on Being a Mother in the Academe and a York Knowledge Mobilization research project on Young Motherhood. O'Reilly is founder and director of The Association for Research on Mothering (ARM). Founded in 1998, ARM is the first feminist research association on the topic of mothering-motherhood and has more than 500 members worldwide. As well, Dr. O'Reilly is founder and editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering, the first, and still only, scholarly journal on motherhood. Both ARM and its journal are recognized worldwide as the leading research center/journal on Motherhood. In 2005 she launched Demeter Press, the first feminist press on motherhood, which has published four books and has another ten planned or in production. In 1991 she designed Canada's first university course on Motherhood. Lastly, she is founder and director of Mother Outlaws, a feminist mother group, which is now established in cities around the world. Dr. O'Reilly has presented her research at more than 50 conferences in over a dozen countries and was a keynote speaker at the National Women's Studies Conference in 2006; likewise, she has given numerous talks at universities across North America and Europe. O'Reilly's achievements have attracted significant media attention; she has been interviewed widely on the topic of motherhood including appearances on The Agenda, More to Life, Planet Parent, Canadian Living Television, The Star, The National Post, The Globe and Mail, and CBC Radio. In 1998 she was the recipient of the University-wide Teacher of the Year award at York University, and in 2007 she was granted Atkinson's prestigious Outstanding Research Award. Andrea and her common-law spouse of twenty-five years are the parents of a twenty-three year old son and two daughters, ages eighteen and twenty.