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Jennifer Salerno Ed.D., is a 2026 graduate of the Ed.D. program in Educational and Professional Practice at Antioch University.
Dissertation Committee:
Richard Kahn, Ph.D., Committee Chair
John Scott, Ph.D., Committee Member
Anthony Nocella, Ph.D., Committee Member
Document Type
Dissertation
Publication Date
2026
Abstract
This dissertation aimed to challenge and move beyond unjust social norms related to individual ability and independence, finding such norms based on a fictitious ideal of human capacity. Instead, an ethic of interdependence, such as encompasses the natural world, is defined and promoted in turn. People with disabilities are considered deficient and marginalized because they deviate from ableist norms (Flynn, 2020). They face significant barriers to establishing and maintaining relationships with nature as a result of ability expectations around how bodies should look and behave in the natural world (Wolbring & Lisitza, 2017). People with disabilities covet normality and the privileges of the able-bodied majority. However, through their desires for normalcy and sameness, they can uncritically perpetuate the ableist structures that work to maintain their subordination (De Schauwer et al., 2020). Using a transdisciplinary framework that employed transformative learning theory and critical disability studies with a specific focus on ecoability in concert with posthumanism, this dissertation examined the problem of living with a disability in a world made for and by an able-bodied majority. Autoethnography was employed as a qualitative method to examine the lived experiences of the researcher as she traveled through the borderlands between ability and disability while dismantling the reality she once knew as an able-bodied person and reconstructing a new reality and an emergent worldview in relation to it. The insight gained from the dissertation contributes to scholarship in disability studies by drawing on the lived experiences of a person living with a disability. It has the potential to inspire others to recognize and nurture interdependent relationships that include nature as well as to transform their perspective of disability into a powerful identity and a lens for viewing obstacles as potentialities. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).
Recommended Citation
Salerno, J. (2026). Hope is an Act, Not a Wish: An Autoethnographic Journey of Reimagining Disability as a Catalyst for Playing with Possibility, Creativity, and Innovation within Liminal Spaces. https://aura.antioch.edu/edd/9
Included in
Adult and Continuing Education Commons, Disability Studies Commons, Early Childhood Education Commons, Environmental Sciences Commons
Comments
ORCID No. 0009-0005-2322-487X
Bio:
Dr. Jennifer Salerno is a scholar-activist whose work is rooted in transforming conceptions of ability and fostering interdependent relationships that include the natural world. Based in Baltimore, Maryland, Jen embraced her love of the water by living aboard her sailboat for over 10 years with her husband, Will, and dog, Daisy. In her spare time, she enjoys nurturing her garden and cruising the Chesapeake on her boat with a book in one hand and a camera in the other.
Jen’s scholarship uses a transdisciplinary approach to challenge ableism, eco-ableism, and the oppression of nature. Through critical and transformative autoethnography, Jen employs narrative to explore how lived experience can challenge dominant onto-epistemologies, foreground diversity as a desirable asset, and position disability as a catalyst for creativity and innovation.