Exceptional Sistahood: Implications of Representing Identity in Comics for Collaborative Art Education Practices Among Women Students and Teachers of Color with Disabilities
Open Access
- Author:
- Hicks, Veronica
- Graduate Program:
- Art Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- November 08, 2018
- Committee Members:
- B. Stephen Carpenter, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
B. Stephen Carpenter, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Ariane Cruz, Committee Member
Mary Ann Stankiewicz, Committee Member
Joel Douglas Priddy, Outside Member - Keywords:
- art education
women's studies
gender studies
disability studies
comics studies
studio art
intersectionality
K-12 - Abstract:
- Mainstream comic books featuring disabled women of color characters reinforce stereotyped depictions of minority group identities. In a radical approach to the disability narratives in art education research and counter-storytelling by women of color, this study reads, produces, and shares comics from the perspective of a feminist art education researcher. This study highlights and critiques mainstream comics and the educational systems that maintain group oppression over disabled women of color by considering the creation of comics as an inquiry-based and arts-based education research method. I argue that comic book creators affect reader’s beliefs about disabled women of color by subverting or supporting their accurate representation. Comics created and shared by disabled women of color who are art students and teachers reveal personal and community narratives as a reaction to and reflection of their society. I review how comics created by White, able-bodied men overwhelmingly determine overwhelmingly the presentation of disabled women of color characters. Ultimately, the oppression of minority populations in education and in comics is maintained through the control of representation, which is accomplished through miseducation and misinformation reinforced in the form of laws, imagery, and societal norms. Thus, constructions of race, gender, and ability in comics should be critically examined and changed to counter the racist, sexist, and ableist sociocultural contexts and society producing those images. The study results reveal ways in which an art teacher and her former student employed collaborative art making practices to express their experiences through sequential art in the form of a comic book entitled, Woven. The act of sharing Woven, among a community of disabled female art students and teachers of color, communicated situational oppressions and forged unity around common themes of identity, art making, and community. The same community of disabled women art students and teachers of color participated in a survey about Woven. The survey results demonstrated disabled women of color—specifically art students and teachers in this study—identified overwhelmingly with the themes of art making, identity, and community. The creation and sharing of Woven with art teachers and students added to the representation of disabled women art students and teachers of color in comics publishing, and as a result, provided an accurate representation of this minority population’s experiences in art education.