Becoming Motherscholars

Cheryl E. Matias, Ph.D., is a full professor at University of San Diego. She earned numerous research awards on race and white emotionalities (Derrick Bell Legacy Award and AERA Division K Legacy Award), inducted as a 2026 American Educational Research Association Fellow, and is a motherscholar of three, avid runner, salsera/bachatera, yogi, and an unyielding Lakers fan.Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, Ph.D., is a distinguished professor at San Francisco State University, Founder of Pin@y Educational Partnerships, Director of Community Responsive Education, Curriculum for UCLA’s Foundations and Futures, and a motherscholar of a prolific dancer artivist. She received the CSU Wang Family Award, the AAAS exemplary mentorship award, and the 2024 American Educational Research Association Fellow.Arlene Sudaria Daus-Magbual, Ed.D., is an Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University. An educator, community organizer, and motherscholar to two, she advances research on Ethnic Studies, Critical Leadership Praxis, and Atang Praxis, She is the Director of Pin@y Educational Partnerships and the SF State CSU ASAP and AANAPISI Initiatives.Christin DePouw, Ph.D., is a learning experience consultant and former associate professor of education. She is a motherscholar of one and brings a critical, relational lens to program evaluation, continuous improvement, and asset-based pedagogy in university and technical college settings.

“Becoming Motherscholars provides us an intimate look at the lives of women who navigate parenting within institutions designed to exclude them. Through collective storytelling, Cheryl Matias, Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, Arlene Daus-Magbual, and Christin DePouw demonstrate motherscholaring as transformative praxis—one that weaves together the roles of mother and scholar, teacher and student, and family and community, to challenge and reimagine education as we know it. As research that explores the tensions and beauty of parenting in the academy continues to grow, the authors trace for us an intellectual lineage grounded in the work of women of color and lay out a critical framework that necessarily guides us towards intersectional motherscholarship within Education, Ethnic Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and beyond.”Tracy Lachica Buenavista, Ph.D, Professor, California State University, Northridge"This beautiful and courageous book affirms what we have always known: that our mothering and our scholarship are not separate, but forces joined together by love, resistance, and truth. As a motherscholar, I recognize myself in these pages. Through the authors’ powerful narratives, I am reliving the courage it takes to honor who we are in spaces that were never designed for our fullness. What began as a way to name the sacrifice of women in the academy who are raising children, has grown into a movement—collective that is vital, global, and deeply necessary."Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Ph.D., Professor, MotherScholar, Teachers College, Columbia University“The authors provide a stunning tapestry that radically weaves together their maternal and scholarly identities to further theorize the motherscholar concept they introduced years ago. In doing so, they offer embodied principles that are grounded in resistance, intersectionality, love, empathy, and collectivity. Perhaps most importantly, their provocative writing promotes healing and inspires all of us mothers of color in academia to embrace our wisdom, identities, and activism.” Dolores Delgado Bernal, Ph.D., President’s Distinguished Professor, Loyola Marymount UniversityBecoming Motherscholars: Embodying Principles for Theory, Research, and Praxis arrives exactly when we need it most — a bold, necessary, and beautifully rendered reclamation of the whole self in spaces that have long demanded we leave parts of ourselves at the door. Matias and her co-authors do not simply theorize the motherscholar; they embody her, weaving together personal narrative, critical race theory, and intersectional feminist praxis in ways that are at once rigorously scholarly and profoundly human. As someone who has navigated the academy as a Black woman, a mother, a scholar, and a leader, I recognize in these pages both the wounds the institution inflicts and the irreducible power of those who refuse to be diminished by them. This book is a gift to every mother and other-mother who has been made to feel that their children were a liability rather than their greatest source of knowing. It is more than a good read, it is a movement worth teaching and sharing widely.Denise Taliaferro Baszile, Ph.D., Dean, Wayne State University (Original AERA Panelist)

• 1. Embodied Principle #1: Resist Oppressive Structures 2. Embodied Principle #2: Mother and Scholar Together 3. Embodied Principle #3: Motherscholars are Intersectional 4. Embodied Principle # 4: Motherscholars Value Love, Empathy, and Humanizing Relationships 5. Embodied Principle #5: Motherscholars Do Not Mother Alone 6. Embodying Motherscholars: Theory, Research, & Practice