| Advocacy White Papers |
Graduate Student Parent Advocacy Committee"White Paper" Recommendations - Spring 2024 Prepared by Erin R. Kaplan and J. Ellen Gainor This advocacy document derives from the collective personal experiences of ATHE graduate students and their peers who have struggled with the realities of having children while enrolled in master’s, doctoral, and MFA programs, as well as from the input of ATHE faculty who were themselves graduate student parents or who have worked closely with graduate student parents. Its goal is to offer an overview of and summary data analysis on, as well as institutional recommendations concerning, support structures for graduate student parents. Joan C. Tronto, feminist political scholar argues that care work is a practice that “involves both thought and action, that thought and action are interrelated, and that they are directed toward some end.” Tronto’s assertion that care work is not simply a feeling or virtue, but rather a doing should be central to our work as artists and educators, however, when put to the test we seldom find the practice of care in graduate education. When we marginalize the voices of parents, and in particular birthing parents who might have medical complications, we silence those most likely to bring an ethic of care into our classrooms. If we want our institutions of graduate study to keep up with the demands of 21st century life, where pregnant people have robust careers coupled with lives outside of the academy, then we need to be prepared to support those individuals on their journeys, as opposed to punishing them for the human decisions they make about their lives, their families, and their bodies. Committee Members: Download the White Paper (PDF) Download the Self-Advocacy Resource List (PDF)
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