Constructing the (M)other: Narratives of Disability, Motherhood, and the Politics of «Normal»: 22 (Disability Studies in Education) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1433169746 ISBN 13: 9781433169748

Publisher: Peter Lang, 2019

Synopsis

Constructing the (M)other is a collection of personal narratives about motherhood in the context of a society in which disability holds a stigmatized position. From multiple vantage points, these autoethnographies reveal how ableist beliefs about disability are institutionally upheld and reified. Collectively they seek to call attention to a patriarchal surveillance of mothering, challenge the trope of the good mother, and dismantle the constructed hierarchy of acceptable children. The stories contained in this volume are counter-narratives of resistance―they are the devices through which mothers push back. Rejecting notions of the otherness of their children, in these essays, mothers negotiate their identities and claim access to the category of normative motherhood. Readers are likely to experience dissonance, have their assumptions about disability challenged, and find their parameters of normalcy transformed.

About this title

About the Author

Priya Lalvani, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at Montclair State University. She was the recipient of the Emerging Scholar in Disability Studies Award in 2015. Her work is published widely in journals including: Disability and Society, Disability Studies Quarterly, and Equity and Excellence in Education.

Edition details

• Publisher: Peter Lang
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1433169746
• ISBN 13: 9781433169748
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 266
• Editor: Lalvani