Representing Maternal Regret

More than ten years have passed since Orna Donath’s article “Regretting Motherhood: A Sociopolitical Analysis” made waves in academic circles and among the broader public (Donath 2015). Though previous research had highlighted mothers’ ambivalent feelings about the experience and institution of motherhood, Donath was the first to offer evidence that, contrary to social and cultural expectations, there are women who regret the decision to have children. Donath’s intervention led to several follow-up studies in other countries as well as provoking debate in mainstream and social media. Ten years on, it seems timely to take stock of how research and broader conversations have developed in the decade since her controversial ideas were first published.

Notably, Donath’s ideas have also inspired a number of artistic and creative responses, including literary texts, photographic projects, autobiographical reflections, and performances that engage with maternal regret. It is the value and contribution of these cultural interventions that will be the focus of this conference. Key questions we ask include: How have cultural representations of regret taken the discussion in new directions? Within shifting cultural and media landscapes, what new modes for narrating and depicting regret haveemerged? To what extent are cultural explorations of regret inflected by emerging political, cultural, and environmental crises? And what different ways of living with and responding to regret emerge through art and creative work?

We are currently seeking abstracts for a conference that will take place at Maynooth University, Ireland, on 10^th and 11^th  September 2026.

We hope to find shared areas of interest across and between disciplines. We particularly encourage papers that consider the following questions:

• What are the affordances and limitations of different creative forms for challenging existing narratives, empowering parents, and raising awareness of the complexities of parenting in the contemporary era?
• What role do the creative arts play in expanding discursive parameters and challenging norms and myths?
• How might narrative or creative interventions be used to support parents who experience regret or to raise awareness about overlooked emotional possibilities?
• How can academics and creative practitioners work together to generate new spaces for discussion about regret, ambivalence and/or negative feelings about mothering and parenting?

We also invite contributions that explore the gendered dimensions of parental regret. This may include but is not limited to research on paternal regret, as well as reflections on the gendered and intersectional dimensions of parenting experiences and emotions. Ultimately, we ask how cultural representations deepen our understanding of the individual and sociopolitical dimensions of regret and drive the debateforward.

Keynote speakers:

• Franziska Burkhardt (Performance artist and photographer, Weimar)
• Milou Gevers (Director and filmmaker, Amsterdam)
• Diana Karklin (Photographer and visual artist, Madrid) 

We welcome contributions in areas such as: Literature, Media, Culture, History, Politics, Film, Visual Arts, Anthropology, Creative Practice, and Policy. We invite individual proposals of 350 words along with the paper’s title and a 50-word biography. In addition, we encourage pre-constituted panels of 3-4 papers to submit proposals that contain a 150-word panel overview and 350-word abstracts for each paper. Please submit proposals in one PDF document by email to the conference organisers with the heading ‘Representing Regret conference’ by 30^th June 2026.

Conference organisers:

• Prof. Valerie Heffernan, School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Maynooth University, Co. Kildare, Ireland. Email: valerie.heffernan mu ie
• Dr Katherine Stone, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom. Email: K.Stone warwick.ac uk