Acknowledgements
This research was completed with the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Centre for the Studies of Religion and Society, University of Victoria.
Notes
1. I am very aware of the slippery slope of the analogy thesis (see for example Cressida Heyes, Citation2006; Ellen Samuels, Citation2003). I am employing it following the logic of the overcoming story and CTCB Awards. However, I believe that homogenization and the collapse (or slippage) of categories is complicit in compulsory heroism.
2. The expression “come back” is problematic in a number of ways. It implies that someone has left. This positions geographies of rehabilitation “outside” of “normal life” (much like prisons do). Moreover, one can never go “back”; there is only forward. Nostalgia for an earlier time in life can hinder the process of carrying on in new ways.
3. The use of “despite” or “in spite of” is a device central to the overcoming story. I use it ironically.
4. I realize that I am side stepping the issue of agency. In part, this is because I find it difficult to disentangle agency from the overcoming narrative. I hold a “both and” view of agency versus social constructionism (if I can condense it to that). However, this is clearly an area that I will need to attend to further.