CALL FOR PAPERS
Demeter Press is seeking submissions for an edited collection on
DISABLED MOTHERS*
Co-editors: Gloria Filax and Dena Taylor
Publication Date: 2014
DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS: DECEMBER 31, 2011!
While there are several books on raising children with disabilities, the literature is scant on experiences of disabled women who are raising children OR the experiences of those parented by a woman with disabilities. Bringing together disability with mothering has the potential to challenge dominant narratives of both mothering AND disability. Noticing dominant ideas, meanings, and/or stories/narratives (normative discourses) regarding both 'mothering' and 'disability' expose the limits beyond which disabled mothers live their daily lives.
The goal of this edited collection is to add to literatures on mothering and disability through providing stories by disabled mothers or their children as well as chapters of scholarly research and theorizing. We intend that both stories and research in this collection will raise critical questions about the social and cultural meanings of disability and mothering. Whether a birth mother, an adoptive mother,a foster mother, a co-mother, someone mothered by a disabled woman, or someone whose research explores disabled mothering, we invite you to submit to this collection.
Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
How are disabled women discouraged from having children? How does the medical model of disability shape the meanings assigned to disabled mothers? How do chronic illnesses affect mothering? Are disabled mothers healthy mothers? How do the social and cultural models of disability shape how we understand disabled mothers and mothering? Are disabled mothers oppressed? How doissues of race,class, and sexuality affect disabled mothers and their families? Should disabled mothers 'pass' as normal? How are pregnancy and birth experiences shaped by disability? How do children experience and understand a disabled mother? What support is needed and received by disabled mothers? How does the built environment, both public and private, shape the experiences of disabled mothers? What kinds of issues are there with children's schools, health professionals and/or children's attitudes? What form, if any, does social and political activism take? Do legal remedies work to assist disabled mothers (for example, disability as a protected category in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or the Americans with Disabilities Act)? How does a mother's disability expose the expectations of mothering? How does a mother's disability expose the assumptions about disability? How is society disabling of mothering? How can we 'do' disabled mothering differently?
Submission Guidelines
Abstracts should be 250 words. Please also include a brief biography (50 words) with citizenship.
Please send to gfilax@shaw.ca and detaylor@cabrillo.edu
Deadline for Abstracts is December 31, 2011
Accepted papers of 4000-5000 words (15-20 pages) will be due October 15, 2012 and should conform to MLA citation format.
*Tanya Titchkosky argues that referring to "disabled people" is preferable because it emphasizes disablement as a social process that prevents certain people from access to resources and goods available to others. "People with disabilities" implies that disability is not part of what it is to be a person and leaves disability as a problem. We agree with Titchkosky and therefore our choice of the title for this collection is "Disabled Mothers". (See Tanya Titchkosky (2003) Disability, Self, and Society. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, chapter 2).
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