Illness in the Academy

by Myers, Kimberly R.

• ISBN13: 9781557534422
• ISBN10: 155753442X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-07-01
• Publisher: Purdue Univ Pr

Summary

Illness in the Academy investigates the deep-seated, widespread belief among academics and medical professionals that lived experiences outside the workplace should not be sacrificed to the ideal of objectivity those academic and medical professions so highly value. The 47 selections in this collection illuminate how academics bring their intellectual and creative tools, skills, and perspectives to bear on experiences of illness. The selections cross genres as well as bridge disciplines and cultures.

Author Biography

Kimberly Myers is an Associate Professor of English and Medical Humanities at Montana State University, where she teaches British and Irish literature and specialty courses. Myers has won numerous awards for university teaching.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Brancardier	p. 11
Illness and Identity: Dynamics of Self and Family	p. 13
Well Children, Sick Parents
Manzanita	p. 15
Some Questions to Consider	p. 26
The Book of Ruth: A Pelvic Space	p. 34
Breast Disease and Screening: My Mother's Story, My Story	p. 47
Ill Children, Spouses, and Extended Family
Unintended Research: A Sociologist's Experience with Illness and Death	p. 55
Luck or Miracle: My Battle with Cancer	p. 67
Over and Under and Back from Whence You Came	p. 73
Dual Identity: Family Member / Healthcare Professional
Reflections of a Chaplain and a Daughter	p. 90
Stay of Execution	p. 101
Concealing Illness, Performing Health	p. 109
Passing, The Closet, and Coming Out
Coming Out with My Academic Depression	p. 110
Invisible Disorder: Passing as an Academic	p. 123
The Manic-Depressive Professor	p. 131
Sexuality, Body Image and Gender
The First Girl to Land on the Moon	p. 137
A Certain Remoteness: Telling Vaginismus	p. 147
Breast Art	p. 158
Agency and Advocacy	p. 163
Invalids Rendered Invalid
When Pain Is the Other Dancer: Living with Migraine	p. 165
Pain in the Neck	p. 171
My Father's Illness: A Case Study in Ageism	p. 179
The Prolapse	p. 189
On Falling Up	p. 198
Double Trouble	p. 209
Self-Advocacy and Political Activism
Climbing Mountains	p. 220
A Calculus of Advocacy: A Patient, Positionality, and Chronic Illness	p. 226
White Coat Syndrome	p. 254
AIDS in Academe: A Story of Silence, Struggle and Success	p. 263
Disabled Identity in Academia	p. 271
Language and Healing
Losing My Dirty Mind	p. 280
Making the Impossible Possible: Imagining Alternative Experiences of Pain	p. 288
Of Blood and Guts	p. 297
Scheherazade Syndrome: Illness and Storytelling	p. 308
The Treatment	p. 321
Panic	p. 330
Medicine at the Margins	p. 337
The Indeterminacy of Illness
"Speak, Mild Fran": Panic Disorder and My Perverse Devotion to a Life of Public Speaking	p. 339
DSM-IV 300.30	p. 347
Mirror Image	p. 356
Liminal Spaces: Race, Ethnicity and Culture
A Brief Portrait of an Autistic as a Young Man	p. 364
Her Reckoning: A Young Interdisciplinary Academic Dissects the Exact Nature of Her Disease	p. 373
The Interstices of Illness: The Elasticity of Diagnostic Time	p. 381
More Than a Case	p. 392
Medical Magic and Medicinal Cure: Manipulating Meanings of Disease	p. 402
Time Made Strange
Seeing Mt. Fuji	p. 414
Being Ill / Being Well: Reflections on an Illness	p. 421
Bone Scan / On the Lake	p. 436
Shaman	p. 438
32 y/o Single Female with Stage IV Breast Cancer	p. 444
Epilogue: Seasons	p. 451
Contributors	p. 453
Index of Illnesses	p. 467
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