Survivals, Ruptures, Resiliences: Perspectives from Disability Scholarship, Activism, and Art
Narratives of survival and mythologies of resilience play a central role in cultural reproduction of neoliberal Westernised societies and sensibilities. A dominant trope holds that lived experiences of adversity are resources that can be productive and even profitable, when effectively managed. Disabled, m/Mad, d/Deaf, indigenous, racialised, LGBTQ2S, children and older adults – socially and ethno-culturally marginalized people and communities – are routinely represented as occasions to observe, and even test, the truth of this trope. The affects, experiences, realities, desires, and even the very lives of people living with difference and adversity, are treated as resources that can be morally and justifiably exploited in the name of progress. Resilience is paradoxically imagined as a product of disablement, and a form of insurance against disability. Such narratives structure everyday life in schools, colleges and universities, as well as in families and communities, rural and urban environments, nursing homes and hospitals, and even prisons.
This special issue of the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies (CJDS) seeks works that critically examine survival and resilience as socio-political phenomena, and that resist and rupture neoliberal relations to difference and adversity. Submissions may take the form of theoretical, policy and empirical analyses, autoethnographies, pedagogical and activist reflections and interventions, visual and performance art, poetry, fiction/non-fiction, interviews, and critical commentaries that take up, flesh out, and undo unexamined relations to the meanings and materialities of survival, rupture, and resilience.
Written submissions must be no longer than 6,000 words (excluding references, notes, and tables) and reflections and creative writing may be significantly shorter. Work submitted must be original, not under consideration or published elsewhere in print or electronic media. Submissions must include a cover page with authors’ names, titles, institutional affiliations (if applicable), and full contact information, but authors’ names cannot otherwise appear anywhere in the manuscript. Authors must also provide a 250-word abstract and 4–10 keywords. Please read further for CJDS submission guidelines.
Artistic submissions may include poetry, creative writing, photography, video, mixed media, as well as digital renderings of works on paper or sculpture. Artwork must take a form that can be submitted and viewed/heard electronically. For visual imagery, digital files may be sent as jpgs in an e-mail attachment. Emailed image files must be no larger than 640×480 ppi (72 dpi) and must be numbered and named to correspond with a text-based list describing images.
Please submit electronically in Microsoft Word format (or, if sending images, according to the specifications outlined above) as an email attachment to the special issue’s guest editors Dr. Katie Aubrecht: katie.aubrecht@msvu.ca and Dr. Nancy La Monica: lamonican@gmail.com.
Full paper submissions are due 01 October 2017. For further details visit the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies website.
