PRESENTING SUPERB RESEARCH THAT ADVANCES THE FIELD OF EDUCATION
Recipes of Motherhood
Families, Communities, and the Power of Food Narratives
- Publisher
Myers Education Press - ISBN 9781975508128
- Language English
- Pages 250 pp.
- Size 6" x 9"
- Request Exam Copy
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- Publisher
Myers Education Press - ISBN 9781975508142
- Language English
- Pages 250 pp.
- Size 6" x 9"
- Request E-Exam Copy
Recipes of Motherhood: Families, Communities, and the Power of Food Narratives delves into the powerful connections between food, culture, and motherhood within the demanding context of higher education. This thought-provoking volume, edited by Mila Zhu and Sarah Morrison, brings together diverse voices of academic mothers who share how food practices shape, sustain, and empower their lives as they navigate the complex terrain of career, family, and cultural identity.
Drawing from personal narratives, case studies, and interdisciplinary research, Recipes of Motherhood illuminates the ways in which food serves as more than sustenance; it becomes a source of resilience, a tool for community-building, and a means of preserving cultural heritage. The academic mothers in this volume reveal how food acts as a metaphor and medium for navigating life’s challenges, allowing them to bridge their personal and professional identities. From adapting family recipes to sharing meals that create community, each story uncovers the unique strategies academic mothers use to sustain themselves and those around them in an environment that can often feel isolating. Grounded in feminist theory, food studies, and cultural memory, this book highlights how food stories are deeply intertwined with questions of gender, tradition, and self-identity. Chapters explore themes such as the symbolic role of food in cultural heritage, food as a form of resistance to institutional expectations, and culinary traditions as a way to build solidarity among women in academia. Through these narratives, Recipes of Motherhood provides a nuanced understanding of how food can act as both a grounding force and a form of empowerment in academic mothers’ lives. With its interdisciplinary approach, the book appeals not only to scholars in cultural studies, food studies, and gender studies but also to students, educators, and anyone interested in the transformative power of food. Readers will find in these pages a rich tapestry of stories that inspire, educate, and challenge traditional ideas about motherhood and academia.
Perfect for academic courses and personal reading alike, the volume offers insight into how food serves as a vital element in the journey of academic mothers, helping them navigate the intersections of personal identity, professional resilience, and cultural expression. This volume invites readers to savor the complexities of academic motherhood through the lens of food and to consider how everyday acts of cooking and sharing meals can hold deep significance in our lives and our communities.
Whether you are a mother, an educator, or simply someone interested in the stories that food can tell, Recipes of Motherhood is a captivating exploration of how culinary practices shape our relationships, our work, and our sense of self. Join us in celebrating the resilience, creativity, and heritage of academic mothers whose food stories nourish not only their families but also the broader academic community.
Perfect for courses such as: Gender Studies / Women’s Studies – Motherhood and Identity; Food Studies – Cultural Narratives in Food Practices; Education Studies – Women in Academia: Challenges and Resilience; Sociology – Family and Society: Gender Roles and Cultural Heritage; Anthropology – Food, Culture, and Identity; Cultural Studies – Folklore, Tradition, and Modern Identities; Parenting and Family Studies – Motherhood and Work-Life Balance; Interdisciplinary Studies – Food as Narrative and Social Practice; Feminist Theory – Intersectionality of Motherhood, Career, and Culture; Psychology of Women – Resilience and Identity in Motherhood
“In this exhilaratingly tasty volume, Mila Zhu, Sarah Morrison, and a group of creative and critical multiethnic motherscholars, scholarly chiefs and thinkers, and academic activists explore “the powerful connections between food, culture, and motherhood” in the contested world educational landscapes. This invigorating volume illuminates “how [cultural] food practices shape, sustain, and empower their lives” as they navigate their cultural and ethnic identities, cultivate their resilience and resistance against oppressions, and sustain their cultural and linguistic expressions and existences. Their delicious food narratives embody wisdom, courage, hope, joy, and love to nourish bodies and minds, heal the souls of humanity, and preheat desirable collective futurities in a world of increasing complexity, uncertainty, and vulnerability.”
Dr. Ming Fang He, Georgia Southern University
“Recipes of Motherhood serves up something rare and nourishing: a feast of honest, embodied scholarship that refuses to stay in its designated lane. Mila Zhu, Sarah Morrison, and the collective of motherscholars invite us not into an idealized kitchen, but into the real, crumb-strewn, deadline-haunted spaces where care work actually happens—from the elementary school cafeteria line to the immigrant’s countertop, from the anxious hour before a department meeting to the long, healing table of la mesa larga. This collection understands that recipes are more than instructions; they are living archives of survival, intergenerational wisdom, and quiet rebellion. Whether fermenting praxis, folding tamales as ancestral pedagogy, or eating burrata alone as an act of knowing care, each chapter cracks open the so-called private work of feeding others and reveals it as a site of profound intellectual and political possibility. The authors refuse the academy’s hunger for disembodied productivity, instead offering counter-recipes for how to labor slowly, resist together, and season theory with the actual mess of love. Scholars, mothers, caregivers, and anyone who has ever packed a lunch between grading will find here not just validation but method—a way to stir resilience into arroz con pollo, to blend work and family into something sustainable, and to understand that a kitchen table can be a classroom, a refuge, and a tool against white supremacy all at once. This book is warm, sharp, and unapologetically alive.”
Dr. Min Yu, Wayne State University
“Recipes of Motherhood provides us with a groundbreaking collection of narratives carefully curated from women navigating the spaces of academia and motherhood. Captivating vignettes peel back the layers of academic responsibilities, (re)discovering identities, and the demands of invisible labor powerful women navigate in the patriarchal world of higher education. This collection invites readers to join the dinner conversation through engaging stories told through the lens of human connection: food.”
Dr. Morgan Stewart, Austin College
“As an academic mother, I found Recipes of Motherhood both affirming and transformative. This collection beautifully captures how our kitchens, classrooms, and communities intertwine, revealing the intellectual and emotional labor that so often goes unseen. Through powerful narratives and critical insight, it honors the ways we carry culture, care, and knowledge across generations. This is a deeply resonant and necessary book for anyone navigating motherhood within and beyond the academy.”
Dr. Jennifer Watters, The University of Texas at Tyler
“A powerful, beautifully written collection that honors motherhood, culture, and resistance as lived pedagogy. These chapters blend storytelling and theory with care and clarity, showing how food, memory, and ancestry become praxis. Essential reading for anyone committed to equity, humanizing scholarship, and decolonial ways of being.”
Dr. Marianella Moore, Houston Public Schools
“Recipes of Motherhood: Families, Communities, and the Power of Food Narratives is a deeply moving and honest exploration of the realities many mothers live every day but rarely name aloud. Through stories rooted in food, family, and tradition, the book weaves together warm memories with shocking truths about the challenges of motherhood, particularly for women navigating careers in academia while striving to be present, nurturing parents. These stories speak to the freedom found in shared experience, the resilience forged through struggle, and the healing that comes when women allow themselves to be seen beyond professional roles.”
Dr. Amanda St. John, Southeastern Oklahoma State University
Acknowledgments
Mise en Place (Editor’s Preface)
Part I – Lunch, Care, and Invisible Work
Chapter 1. Fermenting Praxis
by Charlene E. Holkenbrink-Monk
Chapter 2. Multigenerational Explorations of Food Literacies and Academic Motherhood
by Marilyn Vine Schamroth, Lorraine Schaefer, Charlotte Abrams, Madeline L. Abrams, Molly Kurpis, Sandra Schamroth Abrams, and Mary Beth Schaefer
Chapter 3. My Mother’s Recipes: Lessons in Higher Education, Motherhood, and Class
by Lindsey Phillips Abernathy
Chapter 4. Committed to Lunch: Resisting Academic Overwork From the Elementary School Cafeteria Room
by Jackie Hoermann-Elliott, Ph.D.
Part II – Long Tables and Archives
Chapter 5. Burrata by Myself: Knowing Care Through the Café
by Sandra K. Vanderbilt
Chapter 6. Stirring Resilience in Arroz con Pollo: A Personal Narrative
by Aurelia Isabel O’Neil
Chapter 7. Layers of Invisible Labor: Cakes, Academia, and Motherhood
by Kellie M. McKinney
Chapter 8. Cultura y Comida: Utilizing Cultural Foods to Resist and Heal From White Supremacy as Motherscholars
by Andrea G. Portillo and Jessica I. Ramirez
Chapter 9. La Mesa Larga: At the Table With Jane
by Elizabeth Dubberly
Part III – Counter-Recipes and Theory on Fire
Chapter 10. Margins and Fire: Recipes of Motherhood as Bodied Curriculum
by Ying Wang and Mila Zhu
Chapter 11. Whisking Together Work and Family: The Blend of Motherhood and Academia
by Xiaoxiao Du, Lauren D. Goegan, and Lucy Delgado
Chapter 12. Mi/Tu/Nuestra Cocina: Ancestral Knowledge and Cultural Mothering While Making Tamales
by Freyca Calderon and Karla O’Donald
Chapter 13. In-Betweenness: A Counter-Recipe of Immigrant Mothers and Scholars
by Mayra Garcia-Diaz and Bahar Mentch
Editor’s Aftertaste (Osomatsu-sama)
About the Authors
Index
NOTE: Table of Contents subject to change up until publication date.
Mila Zhu
Dr. Mila Zhu is Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Coordinator of the EDUC Program at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, where she also serves as Founding Director of the Center for Interconnected Curriculum and Networked Learning (ICoN Learning). Her research centers on Ludic Scholarship, integrating game-based learning, play, and narrative into educational contexts. As series editor of Ludic Scholarship: Games, Learning, and Innovative Pedagogy, she advances work that merges gamification, ludology, and pedagogy. Her book, StrataPlay Methodology: A Lorekeeper’s Game Design in Postqualitative Inquiry, anchors the series by modeling multi-layered, game-inflected approaches to research. Building on this foundation, her current projects extend into health-science–informed XR learning design focused on resilience, mental fitness, and ethical decision-making.
Before joining Southeastern, Dr. Zhu lived, studied, and taught in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Shanghai, experiences that inform her global perspective on curriculum and teacher education. A grand winner of the First Asian Youth Piano Competition and an active freelance musician, she integrates musical practice into pedagogy, infusing teacher preparation and curriculum theory with interdisciplinary inquiry across the arts and multicultural education.
Dr. Zhu was named to Oklahoma Magazine’s 2025 “40 Under 40,” recognizing her leadership in shaping the future of education. She is the recipient of Southeastern’s 2024 Faculty Senate Recognition Award for Outstanding Research and Scholarly Activity and the 2023 Faculty Senate Recognition Award for Excellence in Teaching. These honors reflect her commitment to bridging rigorous scholarship and compelling storytelling and to partnering with pre-service teachers and underserved communities to advance inclusive, high-impact learning across contexts.
Sarah Morrison
Dr. Sarah Morrison (EdD) has been serving in education for over 18 years in public and private environments. She earned her Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Administration from Texas A&M Commerce in December 2020. She has worked in Texas in public schools as an English Literature teacher and is currently an Assistant Professor on tenure track at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. She is a mother of three boys and understands the balance of family and work and how it applies to the profession. She has an interest in helping the community, researching best practices for teachers and administrators to assist staff in the field, and the current technology trends taking place today. Delving into Edible Tales and enhancing the reach for academics to discuss personal stories and lessons on life has been a true joy.