Andrea O'Reilly

Andrea O’Reilly, PhD, is Professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies at York University. O'Reilly is founder and director of The Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, the first and still only international research association on motherhood and, founder and editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative, the first scholarly journal on motherhood. She is founder and publisher of Demeter Press; established in 2006, Demeter is the first feminist press on mothering, reproduction, sexuality and family with 80 plus titles published. She has presented her research at more than a hundred conferences, in 25 plus countries and has been a keynote at numerous international conferences including Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, Ireland, Israel, Wales, Qatar and the United States.  She is co-editor/editor of 19 books including most recently This is what a feminist slut looks like: Perspectives on the SlutWalk movement (2015), Mothers, Mothering and Motherhood across Cultural Differences: A Reader  (2014) and Academic Motherhood in a Post Second Wave Context: Challenges, Strategies, Possibilities (2012).  O’Reilly is author of Toni Morrison and Motherhood: A Politics of the Heart, (2004) Rocking the Cradle: Thoughts on Motherhood, Feminism, and the Possibility of Empowered Mothering, (2006) and Matricentric Feminism: Theory, Activism, and Practice (2016). She is editor of the first encyclopedia (3 Volumes, 705 entries) on Motherhood (2010). She is a recipient of the CAUT Sarah Shorten Award for outstanding achievements in the promotion of the advancement of women in Canadian universities and colleges, is twice the recipient of York University’s “Professor of the Year Award” for teaching excellence and in 2014 was the first inductee into the Museum of Motherhood Hall of Fame.