Endorsements

The metaphors of water and swimming that run throughout Stories of Raising Boys are apt for the shifting currents and confluences of intersecting identities in a cultural sea of difference. This project vulnerably and courageously confronts contested issues of race, gender, and the performativity of parenting. At the same time, Scott-Pollock illustrates the power and importance of qualitative inquiry through an exacting narrative autoethnographic framework. In doing so, she establishes a template for co-storying as critical methodological play that invites others to tell their stories.”

—Bryant Keith Alexander, Professor of Communication, Cultural, Gender, and Performance Studies and Dean in the College of Communication and Fine Arts at Loyola Marymount University and coauthor of Epistolary Autoethnographies on Loss, Memory and Resolution: Reflections on Black Motherhood

Stories of Raising Boys is a beautifully crafted critical autoethnography that shimmers with intimate, ethically reflexive storytelling, dialogue, and a symphony of voices. Scott-Pollock models the promise of a co-storying qualitative methodology while advancing scholarship on masculinity, disability, gender expansiveness, and parenting. You will lose yourself in Vinny’s glitter-bright gender-expansive boyhood and in Tony’s navigation of seizures and hegemonic masculinity. This is an intriguing read, especially for those interested in family communication, performance of identity, queer studies, qualitative methods, disabilities, and youth development. Highly recommended.

—Sarah J. Tracy, Professor, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University and author of Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact