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K. WAUTHIER DISSERTATION 2022_Final.pdf (5.05 MB)

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"I Wish to Be, I Wish to Give, I Wish to Go, I Wish to Meet": Make-A-Wish and the Construction of Disability, 1980-Present

Wauthier, Kaitlyn E.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1648675310244563

Abstract Details

2022, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, American Culture Studies.
This dissertation posits that the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America (Make-A-Wish) is a site of knowledge about contemporary constructions of disability. Since its founding in 1980, Make-A-Wish has built a notable reputation as a charity that grants once-in-a-lifetime wishes to children with critical illnesses. Using a disability studies approach that contextualizes Make-A-Wish’s charity model of disability, this project builds on the work of scholars such as Alison Kafer, Paul Longmore, and Jasbir Puar to think through the various elements of the wish-granting organization’s structure, premise, and representational strategies. Further, the project explicates the ways that Make-A-Wish perpetuates neoliberal concepts of private enterprise and personal responsibility as the organization reinforces Talcott Parson’s concept of the “sick role” and isolates its grantees from a larger disability community. In addition to studying the main themes that appear across Make-A-Wish’s official platforms, this dissertation also investigates the implications of two of the elements that ostensibly set Make-A-Wish apart from other organizations: its wish-granting model and its definitions of wish eligibility. Specifically, the organization’s reproduction of social conceptions of leisure and necropolitics exemplify the complex ways Make-A-Wish interacts with dominant understandings of disability. In order to further complicate the representations of disability Make-A-Wish promotes, this study pairs a content analysis of Make-A-Wish materials with the perspectives of individuals who have personal experiences with the organization—either as wish grantees, grantee family members, and/or donors. I conducted interviews with these individuals to gather valuable insights into the organization’s work and to nuance the analysis the project presents. Finally, I weave my own experiences with the organization as the sister of a Make-A-Wish grantee through this project, both to establish my researcher standpoint and to further elucidate the many ways Make-A-Wish creates charity experiences for the individuals it ostensibly serves and the social environment in which they live.
Sarah Rainey-Smithback, PhD (Advisor)
Amelia Carr, PhD (Other)
William Albertini, PhD (Committee Member)
Rebecca Kinney, PhD (Committee Member)
184 p.
American Studies
Make-A-Wish; disability; autoethnography; necropolitics; leisure; charity model of disability; charity; poster child; wish; disability studies; ethnography

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wauthier, K. E. (2022). "I Wish to Be, I Wish to Give, I Wish to Go, I Wish to Meet": Make-A-Wish and the Construction of Disability, 1980-Present [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1648675310244563

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wauthier, Kaitlyn. "I Wish to Be, I Wish to Give, I Wish to Go, I Wish to Meet": Make-A-Wish and the Construction of Disability, 1980-Present. 2022. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1648675310244563.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wauthier, Kaitlyn. ""I Wish to Be, I Wish to Give, I Wish to Go, I Wish to Meet": Make-A-Wish and the Construction of Disability, 1980-Present." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1648675310244563

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1648675310244563
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© 2022, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.