MIRCI Advisory Board

	Dr. Modupe Olaogun is the Master of Stong College and Associate Professor in the Department of English at York University, where she has taught African and post-colonial literatures and drama since 2000. Dr. Olaogun studied at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, where she earned a BA Honours degree and an MA degree in English; and at York University, Canada, where she earned a PhD degree in English. She founded AfriCan Theatre Ensemble in 1998 and has been the company’s artistic director and producer since then, using local talents to stage plays which originate from Africa and stimulating new creations inspired by the contact between Africa and Canada. Dr. Olaogun’s current research interests include the aesthetics of drama creation in African contexts, including the gender dimensions of the aesthetics. She hosts a staged drama reading series at Stong College, in the rejuvenated Samuel Beckett Theatre/Screening Room.

	Rishma Dunlop is Literary Editor for MIRCI's Demeter Press. She is an essayist, dramatist, poet and fiction writer. Rishma Dunlop is the author of three books of poetry: The Body of My Garden, Reading Like a Girl, and Metropolis. She is co-editor of Red Silk: An Anthology of South Asian Canadian Women Poets and editor of White Ink: Poems on Mothers and Motherhood. Her radio drama, The Raj Kumari’s Lullaby, was commissioned and produced by CBC Radio and published in Where is here? The Drama of Immigration. Her poetry has won awards including the 2003 Emily Dickinson Prize, and has been published in Canada, the US, South Africa, and the UK. Her work has been awarded grants from the Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council and Canada Council of the Arts. Rishma Dunlop is a professor of English and Education at York University, Toronto. She is Poet-in-Electronic Residence at the Centre for Cross Faculty Inquiry, University of British Columbia for 2006-2007 and editor of Studio, an online poetry journal. She will be Coordinator of Creative Writing in English at York University in July 2007. www.rishmadunlop.com

	Jen Lawrence is an MBA and former banker who left the world of finance for the world of sippy cups and goldfish crackers. She writes about her experiences on her blog MUBAR (Mothered Up Beyond All Recognition). She is also the creator of T.O. Mama, an online survival guide for Toronto parents, and Reviews Co-Editor for Literary Mama. Her work has appeared on The Philosophical Mother and Literary Mama and her essay about maternal guilt will be appearing in the forthcoming anthology, Between Interruptions (Key Porter). She lives in Toronto, Canada with her two young children.

	Shana L. Calixte, 30, is a PhD Candidate in the School of Women’s Studies (http://www.arts.yorku.ca/wmst/) at York University in Toronto, Canada. She has an MA in Women’s Studies from York University as well, and a Bachelor of Journalism and Women’s Studies from Carleton University (http://www.carleton.ca/womensstudies/) in Ottawa, Canada. Her current academic work is focused on the history of Caribbean Girl Guide associations and HIV/AIDS education. Her past work centred on the use of oral histories to document the stories of migration, home and displacement for second generation Caribbean women. Her recent publications include a co-authored chapter entitled “Liberal, Socialist, and Radical Feminism: An Introduction to Three Theories About Women’s Oppression and Social Change” (Feminist issues: Race, class, and sexuality, 2004), and “Things Which Aren't To Be Given Names: Afro-Caribbean and Diasporic Negotiations of Same Gender Desire and Sexual Relations” (Canadian woman studies/ Les cahiers de la femme, 2005). Along with May Friedman, she is the editor of the upcoming collection, Mothering and Blogging: Theory and Practice, to be released by Demeter Press in the Fall of 2008. Shana has worked on many projects within the Caribbean and Black communities of Ottawa and Toronto. She recently worked as the Project Manager and website coordinator for CaribbeanTales.ca (formerly CaribbeanTales.org), an interactive educational audio-visual website which documents the stories of Caribbean peoples through music, literature and oral histories. She was also a writer and researcher for NuBeing International (http://www.nubeing.com/), an African-Culture magazine, a reporter for DRUM, a newspaper for the Harambee Caribbean Community Centre, as well as the host of Friday Morning Special Blend, an African-Canadian current affairs radio program on Carleton University's campus radio station, CKCU (http://www.ckcufm.com/). She has also been a teaching assistant, writing instructor and a research assistant for various faculty projects at York University. Shana was also a volunteer at the York University Women's Centre (http://www.yorku.ca/ywc/) for 5 years. Shana lives with her family and their new son Dré in Toronto.

	May Friedman lives in Toronto with her partner and two children. May combines social work with graduate studies and, of course, mothering. One of her most cherished activities is sitting on the sofa reading mommyblogs, an activity she hopes to put to work in the context of her forthcoming dissertation.

	Andrea O'Reilly is founder and director of MIRCI. Click here to find out more about Andrea.

	Ruth Panofsky is Book Review Editor of the Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering and Associate Professor of English at Ryerson University. She teaches and researches in the areas of Canadian literature and culture. Her most recent book, The Force of Vocation: The Literary Career of Adele Wiseman, was published by the University of Manitoba Press in 2006. She is also Poetry Editor of Parchment: Contemporary Canadian Jewish Writing and the author of two volumes of poetry: Laike and Nahum: A Poem in Two Voices (Toronto: Inanna Publications, forthcoming 2007) and Lifeline (Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2001).

	Joanna Radbord is a lesbian feminist mother and a lawyer with the firm of Epstein Cole, LLP. Her practice focuses on family law and gay and lesbian equality rights, and she is particularly interested in the legal regulation of lesbian mothering. Joanna was involved with M. v. H., a Supreme Court of Canada decision resulting in the recognition of same-sex relationships in dozens of federal and provincial statutes. She was counsel to a lesbian father in Forrester v. Saliba, which states that transsexuality is irrelevant to a child's best interests. She has acted for the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund in cases involving the feminization of poverty, particularly the spousal support variation case Boston and the retroactive child support case DBS. She was co-counsel to the Ontario and Quebec same sex couples who won the freedom to marry in Halpern and on the Reference re Same-Sex Marriage before the Supreme Court. Joanna also appeared as counsel in Rutherford, achieving immediate legal recognition for lesbian mothers, and represented the Rutherford families as intervener counsel in A.A. v. B.B. v. C.C., the case allowing recognition of three parents in law.

	Linn Baran assists MIRCI with community outreach ventures to link "lived mothering" to "examined motherhood"; bridging academe and activism. In this capacity, Linn is also the Coordinator of MIRCI's Mother Outlaws group and monthly speaker’s series. A graduate of York University with degrees in English Literature and Women's Studies, Linn has most recently been working with community-university research groups, family resource programs, advisory committees and parent action groups to increase community capacity and social inclusion of all mothers with young children in service provisions and family supports. Linn is particularly interested in non-traditional forms of social networks that mothers engage in to both empower themselves and resist dominant narratives of “good motherhood”. Her current creative writing and research projects – including the Motherhood Watch project- focus on issues of maternal surveillance and judgement as well as what she has defined as the “gentrification of mother’hood”. Linn is available to facilitate "Un-Masking Motherhood" workshops for women interested in addressing core concerns of maternal identity while also examining the cultural constructions of motherhood. She is also available to present MIRCI in the community at conferences, mother’s centres, family resource programs, Ontario Early Years Centres, and other community initiatives. Linn lives with her son and partner in the Beaches community of Toronto. Please contact her at linnbaran@sympatico.ca for further information.

	Channa Verbian is a doctoral candidate in counselling psychology at OISE/UT and a registered social worker with a private psychotherapy practice informed by feminist, critical multicultural, emotion focussed, and client centred approaches. Her research area is on the experiences of White birth mothers of mixed race Black/White children. She herself is the birth mother of two Jewish mixed race adult children. She lives and works in Olde Town Toronto near the St. Lawrence Market.

	Susan Driver, York University

	Caitlin Fisher, York University

Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement
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