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SLU-Madrid English Faculty Present at Conference on Motherhood in Literature

by Isaiah Voss on 05/26/2025

05/26/2025

Anne Mulhall, Ph.D., and Carolina Toscano, Ph.D., represented Saint Louis University-Madrid at "The Multiple Representations of the Spanish and Irish Mother in Contemporary Literature," held at the Universidad de Almería on May 7-9, 2025.

The event was funded by Spain's Ministerio de Igualdad through the Instituto de las Mujeres, and brought together scholars examining maternal figures in contemporary literary narratives across Spain and Ireland.

Mulhall presented her paper, "Absent Mothers in Post-Crash Irish Fiction," which explored representations of maternal absence in Irish literature following the 2008 economic collapse. Her analysis focused on how literary texts reflect the emotional and structural impacts of crisis-era austerity, particularly through mother figures who are physically or psychologically absent.

Two women wearing conference name tags stand on each side of a promotional poster for an international literature conference in the university patio.

Anne Mulhall (left) and Carolina Toscano (right) pose in front of conference poster at the Universidad de Almería. Photo submitted by Carolina Toscano.

Toscano contributed with her paper titled "Representations of Migrant Motherhood in Contemporary Spanish Literature: From Our Lady of Fatima to Quan Zhou Wu's 'Gazpacho Agridulce,'" examining how contemporary Spanish literature portrays migrant mothers. She analyzed the transformation of religious and cultural icons, such as Our Lady of Fatima, and contrasted them with modern narratives that depict hybrid, multicultural motherhood.