Bøker av Judith Kirwan Kelley

Judith Kirwan Kelley is the author of Dorchester Girl (SDP Publishing, 2021). In her second book, Since Dorchester, Kirwan Kelley continues her journey, only persuaded to "get in the car or we're moving without you!" by extreme familial pressure to leave her beloved Dorchester birthplace behind when her family moved to Boston's South Shore in 1968. This is a memoir-but one infused with historical, sociopolitical, and economic background that molded the family's choices. Possessing academic degrees, including a bachelor's degree from Boston State College and a Doctor of Philosophy from Brown University, Kirwan Kelley brings theoretical perspectives from numerous fields to her book. The stories presented in Since Dorchester show us Kirwan Kelley growing up as a city girl in tumultuous social times, the causes and consequences of frequent moves, and the effects of rapid social change on family structure and society as a whole from women's rights, civil rights, the sexual revolution, and dynamic political changes. Enjoy!

Judith Kirwan Kelley provides a unique "lived" perspective on growing up in Dorchester, Massachusetts, during tumultuous socio-political times. Deeply impacted by the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the decade of the 1960s dramatically shaped the contexts of living in America. The changing family as well as the social movements for Civil Rights, Women's Rights, Gay Rights, Rights of the Disabled, the sexual revolution, among other forms of cultural upheaval, all played their part in the life of one Originally from Dorchester (OFD).Written with humor and pathos, the stories are based on the author's experiences, backed up by a comprehensive investigation of written sources which explore the complex history of mandatory school desegregation in Boston, and other cultural phenomena occurring at the time. Kirwan Kelley's detailed elaborations of family, neighborhood, and complex cultural dynamics are reflective of both the consistency and unpredictability of life.Intended to inform as well as to entertain, Kirwan Kelley clearly demonstrates appreciation of having come of age in Dorchester. She is, and always will be, a Dorchester Girl at heart.