Kimberly Killen

“Can You Hear Me Now?” Race, Motherhood, and the Politics of Being Heard

Avery Lord — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 17:15:24 +0000

“Can You Hear Me Now?” Race, Motherhood, and the Politics of Being Heard Avery Lord Thu, 06/18/2026 - 11:15

“Can You Hear Me Now?” Race, Motherhood, and the Politics of Being Heard

By: Kimberly Killen

Abstract:

Motherhood as a political identity grants women political legitimacy, enabling them to make rights-based claims. However, the efficacy and possibility of motherhood as a political identity is entangled in the sexist and racist narratives that are inextricable from white supremacy. In this article, I analyze the language used by the Mothers of the Movement (MothM) at the 2016 Democratic National Convention to demonstrate how the identities and experiences of Black women, specifically Black mothers, are co-opted and reproduced as deficient, criminal, and irrelevant, thereby limiting their ability to make claims as mothers and citizens. How, then, can marginalized mothers confront the tools of white supremacy, which portray them as “bad” mothers and “bad” citizens, to be heard within the dominant order without conforming to it? I contend that in appropriating the very discourses and spaces that seek to exclude and subjugate them, the MothM demonstrate the hypocrisy of the system of “good motherhood”—all the while reaffirming their status as equal citizens deserving of political recognition. Drawing from Black feminist thinkers, I demonstrate how motherhood and the rights that the MothM claim as mothers can be conceptualized as assertions of freedom and equal citizenship.

Off

Traditional

White

Congratulations Kimberly Killen!

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 21:11:26 +0000

Congratulations Kimberly Killen! Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/15/2020 - 15:11

Congratulations to Kimi Killen, winner of the Fall Fellowship!

From the denigration of anti-Kavanaugh protesters as chaotic and mob-like to the characterization of participants in the Women’s March as “paid protestors” and the suspicion over #MeToo, incidences of feminists speaking up and being dismissed, denigrated, or even ignored are not isolated or rare. In fact, dominant systems and discourses of power are invested in maintaining feminist voices as “silly” and “irrational,” if not “dangerous.” In her dissertation, Kimi Killen addresses this problem, asking, “How do feminists get heard?” Scholars to date have been interested in engaging this question. However, they have asked this question in limited ways, confining their scope to how individual feminists get heard by dominant institutions and discourses (Wingrove 2016; Zivi 2012, 2016). By focusing primarily on the relationship between marginalized voices and the dominant order, political theorists fail to fully account for the effects feminists’ efforts to get heard have on those positioned outside the dominant order. Resultantly, the types of speech acts and practices understood as “successful” in getting feminists heard are severely limited, effacing practices that mobilize and activate other women.

In her dissertation, Ms. Killen addresses these gaps. She argues that by no longer focusing primarily on the dominant order’s reception of feminist claims, previously disparaged types of speech and protest can be recovered as politically viable, even successful, practices of getting heard for feminists. Through detailed analysis of select case studies, she argues that broadening the understanding of who is listening when feminists make political claims expands conceptualizations of what constitutes successful political speech as well as poses a challenge to dominant systems that silence, erase, or dismiss feminist claims of injustice.

This grant supports the research, completion, and presentation of two chapters of Ms. Killen’s dissertation. Specifically, this grant facilitates her goals of researching two chapters of her dissertation in fall 2020. Further, it enables Ms. Killen to develop one chapter to be presented as a paper on a panel accepted for the 2020 American Political Science Association (APSA) conference and proposed for the 2020 American Political Theory (APT) conference.

Check out her recognition on the Graduate School Award Winners page!

Off

Traditional

White

Kimberly Killen's First Published Work Featured in a Cambridge University Journal

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 17:45:06 +0000

Kimberly Killen's First Published Work Featured in a Cambridge University Journal Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/12/2019 - 10:45

Kimberly's very first article, “Can You Hear Me Now? Race, Motherhood, and the Politics of Being Heard," is now out in print in the APSA journal Politics and Gender as the lead article of the issue!

Check it out here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-gender/latest-issue

Well done, Kimberly!

Off

Traditional

White

Can You Hear Me Now?' Race, Motherhood, and the Politics of Being Heard

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 20:23:21 +0000

Can You Hear Me Now?' Race, Motherhood, and the Politics of Being Heard Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/11/2018 - 14:23

*Killen, Kimberly. Forthcoming. "Can You Hear Me Now?' Race, Motherhood, and the Politics of Being Heard." Politics & Gender.

Off

Traditional

White