Leaving a Light on for Ash: Explorations into the Activist Mothering of Coralee Smith (Mother of Ashley Smith, 1988-2007)

Authors

  • Josephine L. Savarese Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, St. Thomas University

Abstract

Over the last decades, scholars have investigated mothers’ roles in ensuring their daughters and loved ones unexplained disappearances and deaths by violence are publicized and acknowledged. Here, I draw from previous scholarship to explore whether there are commonalities between a mother’s quest for justice after her daughter’s death in a Canadian prison and other mothers who similarly demand accountability after a loss. The mother’s name is Coralee Smith, the mother of the well-known teenager and deceased prisoner, Ashley Smith. In this text, I work to theorize Coralee Smith’s agency by drawing parallels with other mothering actions to demand redress for disappearances and losses. In this text, I offer fresh insights to the mothering literature by focusing on activism by parents of criminalized children, rather than adding to the studies on criminalized mothers. Incarcerated mothers are the subject of recent scholarship, but little research is available on the experience of mothers who provide support to incarcerated daughters and who demand accountability following deaths in custody.

Author Biography

Josephine L. Savarese, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, St. Thomas University

Josephine L. Savarese is an associate professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She is a contributor to Demeter Press publications on mothering research and a firm believer that showcasing mothers’ caregiving stories is a gateway to social transformation.

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How to Cite

Savarese, J. L. (2017). Leaving a Light on for Ash: Explorations into the Activist Mothering of Coralee Smith (Mother of Ashley Smith, 1988-2007). Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, 8(1-2). Retrieved from https://jarm3.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/jarm/article/view/40449