An on-going series of photocollages where I reflect as Cornelia Africana an ideal model of virtue, intelligence, and maternal devotion in the Roman Republic. Cornelia puts herself apart from the rest because of her interest in literature, writing, and her investment in the political careers of her sons. She was the mother of the Gracchi brothers. A maternal figure, who, under the guise of absolute devotion, becomes an all-consuming presence: the one who fills all the voids, provides all the answers, and ends up occupying the child’s entire psychic space. This ongoing project explores the paradox of an ideal education as a trap to the child’s autonomy. A trap that devours the very autonomy it seeks to cultivate.