Existing through dis-ease: Autoethnographic renderings of disability experiences.

In this arts-based autoethnographic research, I am exploring my personal experiences of living with chronic illness and witnessing my family’s disability experiences through art-making and narrative writing. By looking at my disability experiences through a critical disability studies lens (CDS) and especially from Alison Kaefer's (2013) Political/Relational model of disability, which elaborates on how disability is "experienced in and through relationships" (p. 81), I am situating my experiences within the disability experiences of my family members and alluding to how my parent's and grandparent’s disability had a direct impact on me while growing up in India, hence making a connection between disability and intergenerational trauma. Besides, I am also contextualizing my disability experiences within the social-cultural notions around disability in India (Ghia, 2002; Parekh, 2008) and addressing how my disability identity intersects with other minoritized identities such as a woman of color, an immigrant, and a carer for my mother in hospice. Conducting this research from my position as an art educator, researcher, and artist helped me establish the epistemological significance of art making in understanding and sharing the complexity of disability experiences. Hence, through this research I establish the importance of experiential narratives in creating scholarly forms of knowledge within art educational settings.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Bhalla, Shivani

Contributors dc:contributor

• Travis, Sarah
• Lucero, Jorge
• Nguyen, Mimi Thi
• Adamson, Brynn C.
• Wexler, Alice

• Critical Disability Studies
• Disability Identity
• Narrative
• Arts-based Research
• Autoethnography
• Disability

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Shivani Bhalla

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125827

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F125827