Divergent Encounters with Normal: Are They Really So Different After All?

Authors

  • Cynthia Bruce Candidate in Educational Studies, Acadia University, Wolfville Nova Scotia, Canada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v5i1.252

Keywords:

Normalcy, Ableism, Disability Studies Theory, Higher Education

Abstract

In this paper, I will draw on Fiona Kumari Campbell’s theorizing of ableism to illustrate the essential role of theory in transformative reflection. Such critical reflection can change how we, as disabled students, understand daily experiences of marginalization, and can encourage reconsideration of our responses to them. By sharing how I came to make sense of my own lived experience at university, I hope to make a substantive contribution to academic conversations about the lived complexities of being disabled at university and about our responses to ableism in our midst. Moreover, I aim to add to current understandings of Campbell’s theorizing by translating the often complex language of theory through the analysis and storying of lived experience.

Author Biography

Cynthia Bruce, Candidate in Educational Studies, Acadia University, Wolfville Nova Scotia, Canada

Cynthia Bruce is a Ph.D. Candidate in Educational Studies at Acadia University in Wolfville Nova Scotia, Canada. She is also a part-time faculty member in Acadia’s School of Education where she teaches courses in Disability studies in Education, qualitative research and research literacy, and diversity and inclusion. Cynthia brings her experience as a blind woman, a disabled student, and a disability activist to her teaching and to her research into the experiences of disabled university students in Nova Scotia. Her specific interest is in exploring how students negotiate access to post-secondary learning, and in understanding the diverse ways that they make meaning of those experiences.

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How to Cite

Bruce, C. (2016). Divergent Encounters with Normal: Are They Really So Different After All?. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 5(1), 133–157. https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v5i1.252

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2016)

Section

Articles

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