Tag: PhD Moms

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the publication of Mama, PhD: Women Write About Motherhood and Academic Life, edited by Caroline Grant and Elrena Evans.  I contributed a chapter.  A few days ago, I was contacted by the editors and asked for an update.  “What had changed for me in five years?” they asked.  As I tried to respond to their questions, I was surprised by the gravity in my heart.  When I wrote about motherhood and life as a professional theologian five years earlier, I was a new mother, applying for my third-year review, and trying to navigate my nascent roles as both mom and scholar/educator.  I felt overwhelmed to be sure, but I was overtly grateful to have such a rich and full array of choices about how I lived my life.  Here, a few years later, I am applying for full-professorship.  I am a more seasoned mother with two healthy children.  I chair two departments at my school, and I am generally more established in the many things I juggle simultaneously.  Had I given it any consideration, I would have anticipated a more cheerful five-year check-in. Continue reading “To Dust and Ashes by Natalie Weaver”