(MENAFN- The Conversation)

• Senior Tutor in English, University of Canterbury

Profile Articles Activity

Rachel Williamson teaches into the English, Cultural Studies and Cinema Studies programmes at the University of Canterbury. Her work focuses on gendered experiences of motherhood, reproduction and gender-based violence, and considers how these are informed by and represented in popular culture, film, television, and literature.

She is the author of 21st-Century Representations of Maternal Ambivalence published in 2023 by Palgrave Macmillan as part of their (Re)Presenting Gender series and has published academic articles on contemporary representations of mother-daughter relations, indigenous motherhood, and maternal regret. She is a frequent commentator and reviewer for the popular press.

Previously, Rachel worked as a policy advisor and educator within the domestic/family violence sector.

Education

• 2022 The University of Canterbury, PhD, Cultural Studies
• 2008 The University of Auckland, Master of Art, English

Publications

• 2023 21st-Century Narratives of Maternal Ambivalence, Palgrave MacMillan
• 2022 Responding to domestic violence within the workplace: reflections and recommendations from the DVFREE workplace initiative in Aotearoa New Zealand, Journal of Labour & Industry
• 2022 Maternal Haunting in Elisa Albert's After Birth, Maternal Connections: When Daughter becomes Mother, Garvan & Kosior (eds)
• 2022 "It's not enough for me": Maternal Regret in HBO's Big Little Lies, Maternal Regret: Resistances, Renunciations, and Reflections, O'Reilly (ed)
• 2021 A collective vision: Decolonisation and resisting individualism in Waru, Continuum, 35(1)

Professional Memberships

• Screen Studies Association of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand (SSAAANZ)
• Maternal Studies Scholars Network

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