Beyond Mother Goddesses

Florence Pasche Guignard is a professor in the study of religions at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada. Her research explores the intersection of religions with gender, women’s history, motherhood, ritual, and material culture.Pascale Engelmajer is a professor of religious studies at Carroll University. She researches and publishes widely on Buddhism, with a focus on ancient Buddhist conceptualizations of motherhood and mothering.Sucharita Sarkar is a professor of English at D.T.S.S. College of Commerce, Mumbai, a member of the Board of Studies in English at the University of Mumbai, and an invited member of the Faculty of Humanities at Dr. Homi Bhabha State University, Mumbai. Her doctoral thesis investigated mothering narratives in contemporary India.Giulia Pedrucci is a researcher in the history of religions and classical archaeology, holding degrees from the Universities of Bologna and Parma and a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology of the Ancient World from the University of Siena. Currently a postdoctoral fellow at Comenius University in Bratislava, she investigates the religious dimensions of motherhood in ancient Mediterranean societies.

• Introduction: Beyond Mother Goddesses? 1. Interview with Karen Derris: About the article “Interpreting Buddhist Representations of Motherhood and Mothering” (2014) 2. Interview with Reiko Ohnuma: About the book Ties That Bind: Maternal Imagery and Discourse in Indian Buddhism (2012) 3. Interview with Amrita Nandy: About the book Motherhood and Choice: Uncommon Mothers, Childfree Women (2017) 4. Interview with Maithreyi Krishnaraj: About the book Motherhood in India: Glorification without Empowerment? (2010) 5. Interview with Anu Aneja and Shubhangi Vaidya: About the book Embodying Motherhood: Perspectives from Contemporary India (2016) 6. Interview with Francis X. Clooney SJ: About the book Divine Mother, Blessed Mother: Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary (2005) 7. Interview with Philippe Borgeaud: About the book La Mère des dieux. De Cybèle à la Vierge Marie [Mother of the Gods: From Cybele to the Virgin Mary] (1996) 8. Interview with Massimo Cultraro: About the chapter About the chapter “Ambivalenze materne: rappresentazioni e costruzione dell’identità della figura femminile nella Sicilia protostorica” [“Maternal Ambivalences: Representations and Construction of the Identity of the Female Figure in Protohistoric Sicily”] (2017) 9. Interview with Silvia Romani: About the book Nascite speciali. Usi e abusi del modello biologico del parto e della gravidanza nel mondo antico [Special Births. Uses and Abuses of the Biological Model of Childbirth and of Pregnancy in the Ancient World] (2004) 10. Interview with Roberta Franchi: About the book Dalla Grande Madre alla Madre. La maternità nel mondo classico e cristiano: miti e modelli [From the Great Mother to the Mother. Motherhood in the Classical and Christian World: Myths and Models] (2018–2019) 11. Interview with Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder: About the book When Momma Speaks: The Bible and Motherhood from a Womanist Perspectives (2016) Conclusion: Charting New Directions in the Study of Motherhood and Religions