Dissonant Disabilities

Diane Driedger is Assistant Professor in Disability Studies at the University of Manitoba. She is author of The Last Civil Rights Movement: Disabled Peoples' International and co-editor of three anthologies by women with disabilities; she is also a published poet.Michelle Owen is Associate Professor of Gender Studies and Coordinator of Disability Studies at the University of Winnipeg. Her primary teaching and research interests and publications are focused on gender, sexuality, family, chronic illness, and disability.|Michelle Owen is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Winnipeg. Her primary teaching, research interests and publications are focused ongender, sexuality, family and disability. Most recently, Michelle worked on two projects involving women with disabilities: a longitudinal study of intimate partner violence, and a participatory action research initiative investigating intersecting sites of violence in the lives of girls and young women.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction - Diane Driedger and Michelle OwenPart One: Clashing ExpectationsWater Wearing on a Stone: The Role of Shame in the Social Construction of Chronic Illnesses - Charlotte CaronThe Complexities of Negotiating Power under Conditions of Chronic Illness - Mary Delaney and Sandra BellCrazy Talk: A Dialogue between Two Young Women about Depression - Mandy Fraser and Jennifer MatweeThe Social Construction of Doubt: Women's Accounts of Uncertainty and Chronic Illness - Sheilagh Grills and Scott GrillsPart Two: Unpredictable BodiesThe Emergence of Body Image Dissatisfaction among Women in Singapore - Maho IsonoWhat's Eating You? A Feminist's Chronic Struggle with Anorexic Identity - Morgan GreshamListening to the Body: Women with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and Multiple Chemical Sensitivities Talk about Illness and the Body - Debra A. SwobodaThis Is Not Going to Control My Life: Young and Living with Fibromyalgia - Amy ChowPart Three: Disturbing WorkThe Personal is Pedagogical/The Pedagogical is Personal - Ruth Roach PiersonThere Always Seems to Be Excuses: A Grad Student's Narrative of Autoimmunity - Julie Devaney A Delicate Balance: Chronic Conditions and Workspace - Nancy E. HensenPart Four: Shifting RelationshipsChronic Non-malignant Pain: A Queer Woman's Journey through Relationships and Healing - Corinne StevensWorking Together: Women with Musculoskeletal Illnesses Interacting with Health Care Providers - S. Michelle Driedger, Carrie Sanders, Cindy Gallois, Maree Boyle, and Nancy SantessoCircle of Care: Transitioning through One Woman's Experience of Breast Cancer - Barbara A. BrownPart Five: Traversing DissonanceRecovery and Power: Living with Bipolar Disorder - J. Karen ReynoldsLiving Well (with Cancer): Lessons Learned from Dragon-Boat Racers - Terry L. Mitchell, Franci Finkelstein, Eleanor Nielsen, and Christina YakiwchukSignalling Invisibility, Risking Careers? Caucusing as an SOS - Katherine Teghtsoonian and Pamela MossNotes from Bed: Learning from Chronic Illness - Susan WendellAfterwordBibliographySuggested Web Sites for Further InformationBiographiesIndex

This collection addresses an under-researched and under-theorized academic topic, combining the perspectives of critical disability studies and feminist studies. Most importantly, it does so from the perspective of women who themselves live with chronic illness. The scholarship is sound and well-researched, but also adds an important dimension of personal experience that underlines the value of critical identity politics."" - Pauline Greenhill, Women's and Gender Studies, University of Winnipeg