Barriers and Belonging: Personal Narratives of Disability

by Michelle Jarman (Editor), Leila Monaghan (Editor), Alison Quaggin Harkin (Editor)

Overview

What is the direct impact that disability studies has on the lives of disabled people today? The editors and contributors to this essential anthology, Barriers and Belonging, provide thirty-seven personal narratives thatexplore what it means to be disabled and why the field of disability studies matters. 

The editors frame the volume by introducing foundational themes of disability studies. They provide a context of how institutions—including the family, schools, government, and disability peer organizations—shape and transform ideas about disability. They explore how disability informs personal identity, interpersonal and community relationships, and political commitments. In addition, there are heartfelt reflections on living with mobility disabilities, blindness, deafness, pain, autism, psychological disabilities, and other issues. Other essays articulate activist and pride orientations toward disability, demonstrating the importance of reframing traditional narratives of sorrow and medicalization. 

The critical, self-reflective essays in Barriers and Belonging provide unique insights into the range and complexity of disability experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439913888
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	02/11/2017
Edition description:	1
Pages:	286
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Michelle Jarman is Associate Professor of Disability Studies at the University of Wyoming.

Leila Monaghan is Visiting Assistant Professor of Linguistic Anthropology at Southern Illinois University. 

Alison Quaggin Harkin is Temporary Assistant Lecturer of Disability Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and English at the University of Wyoming.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Entering the Field Michelle Jarman Leila Monaghan 1

Part I Laying the Groundwork

I.1 From Poison Ivy to Live Oak: How Transferring Colleges Changed My Perception of Disability Alyse Ritvo 25

I.2 Speaking Madness Shayda Kafai 32

I.3 Transitioning from One Culture to Another Anmol Bhatia 37

I.4 Growing Up with ADHD Joshua Phelps 43

I.5 Disability and Sports Christopher Weingardt 46

I.6 Contours of Ableism and Transforming a Disabled Life Zachary A. Richter 48

I.7 I Can Dancel Suzi Vee 53

Part II Families, Adaptive Living, and Reorienting Expectations

II.1 Life Given and Memory Lost Mycie Lubin 59

II.2 Beating the Odds: Life with an Invisible and Chronic Disability Elizabeth Allyn Campbell 64

II.3 Benjamin Is Benjamin Joanne De Simone 72

II.4 Conversation with a Mother and Son: An Interview Tricia Black Michael Black Leila Monaghan 77

II.5 Taking Disability One Stage at a Time (unless They Attack You All at Once) Christina Spence 81

II.6 My Brother's Traumatic Brain Injury and Its Effect on Me Douglas Kidd 87

Part III Disability and Communication

III.1 Voicing Disability with Disabled Voices: Reimagining a Stuttered Identity Joshua St. Pierre 99

III.2 Fibromyalgia Syndrome Catherine Graves 104

III.3 ASL in a Hearing World Blake Culley 110

III.4 Bumping into Things while Treading Carefully: On Narrative, Blindness, and Longing for Light Tasha Chemel 116

III.5 What I Wish You Would Ask: Conversations about Cerebral Palsy Leigh A. Neithardt 126

III.6 Take a Second Look Leslie Johnson Elliott 132

Part IV Mapping Complex Relations

IV.1 My Name is Anna Anna Roach 143

IV.2 Living Blind Caitlin Hernandez 145

IV.3 Shades of Shame Emily K. Michael 151

IV.4 Abandoning Normalcy Garret R. Cruzan 157

IV.5 A Quiet Conflict: Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Michael T. Salter 163

IV.6 Brother and Sister in Arms Rachel Anderson 169

Part V Identity, Resistance, and Community

V.1 Disability, Belonging, Pride Allegra Heath-Stout 179

V.2 Deconstructing "Accessible" Education in Academia Nancy La Monica 185

V.3 Fake It until You Make It (or until You Find Your Place) Megan L. Coggins 195

V.4 My Anxiety Susan Macri 201

V.5 Disability, the Lure of Escapism, and Making the Invisible Visible Suzanne Walker 208

V.6 Discovering My Deaf Identity Denton Mallas 214

Part VI Theories and Lives

VI.1 Taking Great Pains with Disability Theory Adena Rottenstein 225

VI.2 Medicating My Socially Constructed Disability Cindee Calton 229

VI.3 Flourishing with Polio: A Spiritual, Transformational, and Disability Studies Perspective Rodney B. Hume-Dawson 237

VI.4 Learning to See Myself in the Mirror Adam P. Newman 245

VI.5 Writing Myself into Madness and Disability Studies Rebekah Moras 252

VI.6 Autism Isn't Speaking: Autistic Subversion in Media and Public Policy Lydia X. Z. Brown 258

Afterword: Negotiating the Future Leila Monaghan 275

Index 279