New paper accepted

Haecceity of becoming-mother:A diffractive analysis of babywearing through a global pandemic

The following paper has been accepted for publication in the journal Cultural Studies --> Critical Methodologies. I will share the link once it has been published but here is the abstract:

Haecceity of becoming-mother:
A diffractive analysis of babywearing through a global pandemic

Abstract

This paper problematises notions of good/bad mothering by putting to work Deleuze and Guattari’s haecceity (2004). Focusing on babywearing, it presents an autoethnography of my experiences of becoming-mother during the Covid-19 pandemic. Using diffractive analysis (Barad, 2014) I analyse the entanglement of my experiences of babywearing, research diaries, images/selfies, the regulations introduced during the pandemic, and the ‘global cultural script’ (Kerrane et al, 2021, 1154) of being a good mother. It works towards a position of (k)not knowing (Osgood, 2019), being open to the unknown. Under the lens of haecceity becoming-mother is ‘thisness’ – a middle, knotting, and unknotting, ever emergent.

Keywords, Babywearing, Diffraction, Haecceity, Motherhood, Pandemic.