title: On the verge: phenomenology and empathic unsettlement.
abstract: Using a phenomenological approach to questions about empathy and stigma, this essay explores stories told by parents of children with disabilities. In a close reading of "Welcome to Holland," an allegorical account of discovering that one's child has Down syndrome, I explore the concepts of narrative alignment (and positionality) and the politics of recognition in narratives about disability. In addition, this autoethnographic account describes my own "empathic unsettlement" as a parent and as an ethnographer.
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shuman
mesh_terms: D000884:Anthropology, Cultural / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019988:Children with Disabilities / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history; D004645:Empathy; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D057545:Social Stigma