ABSTRACT
Mom (Solange Saltus): Although my daughter Roiyah has invited me to take part in her studies for the last decade in increasingly more evident and visible ways, I have never really questioned my involvement. I have taken her offers as a challenge and a novel thing to do. She is more reflective and searching than me of my hinterworld, and so in preparing this chapter, I have indulged her questions and points of reflection in terms of my mothering and my involvement in her work.
Daughter (Roiyah Saltus): Although our bodies were severed from each other over half a century ago, the umbilical connection remains a potent life-force. In this chapter, I am seeking to understand the power of a not entirely resolved and settled connection with my mother that has been such a source of refuge and inspiration during a pivotal period in my academic life. I am seeking to understand why I once hid our connection from colleagues, but not anymore. Thus, the chapter focuses on the maternal in and at work. Drawing on digital stories created by both of us, I locate in particular the interweaving of my academic biography as linked to my mother in two studies conducted over the last decade, and the role my mother played as researcher and research participant.
