“Everybody deserves the right to go to a restaurant. Everybody deserves the right to go on a date. Everybody deserves the right to be employed and have an opportunity. But for people with disabilities, these things aren’t there.”
~ Dylan Alcott
Care Work by
Lambda Literary Award winning poet and essayist and long-time disability justice advocate Leah Piepzna-Samarasinha writes passionately and personally about disability justice in her latest book of essays. Discussing subjects such as the creation of care webs, collective access, and radically accessible spaces, she also imparts her own survivor skills and wisdom based on her years of activist work, empowering the disabled - in particular, those in queer and/or BIPOC communities - and granting them the necessary tools by which they can imagine a future where no one is left behind.
This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
Examining Social Change and Social Responsibility in Higher Education by
Higher education has seen an increase in attention to social change and social responsibility. Providing best practices in these areas will help professionals to create methods for change and suggestions for unity on a global level. Examining Social Change and Social Responsibility in Higher Education is an essential research publication that explores current cultural norms and their influence on curriculum and educational environments and intends to improve the understanding of social change and social responsibility at different sociological levels within various fields pertaining to higher education. Highlighting topics such as campus safety, social justice, and mental health, this book is ideal for academicians, professionals, researchers, administrators, and students working in various disciplines (e.g., academic advising, leadership, higher education, adult education, campus climate, Title IX, SAVE/VAWA, and more). Moreover, the book will provide insights and support executives concerned with the management of expertise, knowledge, information, and organizational development in different types of work communities and environments.
This link opens in a new window
Design Justice by
An exploration of how design might be led by marginalized communities, dismantle structural inequality, and advance collective liberation and ecological survival. What is the relationship between design, power, and social justice? "Design justice" is an approach to design that is led by marginalized communities and that aims explicitly to challenge, rather than reproduce, structural inequalities. It has emerged from a growing community of designers in various fields who work closely with social movements and community-based organizations around the world. This book explores the theory and practice of design justice, demonstrates how universalist design principles and practices erase certain groups of people--specifically, those who are intersectionally disadvantaged or multiply burdened under the matrix of domination (white supremacist heteropatriarchy, ableism, capitalism, and settler colonialism)--and invites readers to "build a better world, a world where many worlds fit; linked worlds of collective liberation and ecological sustainability." Along the way, the book documents a multitude of real-world community-led design practices, each grounded in a particular social movement. Design Justice goes beyond recent calls for design for good, user-centered design, and employment diversity in the technology and design professions; it connects design to larger struggles for collective liberation and ecological survival.
This link opens in a new window
Ideating Pedagogy in Troubled Times by
"We began the call for this book by asking authors to ideate on activism -to take up and seek to extend- the interbraided values from the Curriculum and Pedagogy groups espoused mission and vision, collocating activist ideologies, theoretical traditions, and practical orientations as a means of creatively, reflectively, and productively responding to the increasingly dire social moment. This moment is framed by a landscape denigrated beyond even Pinars (2004) original declaration of the present-as-nightmare. The current, catastrophic political climate provides challenges and (albeit scant) opportunities for curriculum scholars and workers as we reflect on past and future directions of our field, and grapple with our locations and roles as educators, researchers, practitioners, and beings in the world. These troubled times force us to think critically about our scholarship and pedagogy, our influence on educational practices in multiple registers, and the surrounding communities we claim to serve. This is where the call began: from a desire to think through modern conceptions regarding what counts as activism in the fields of education, curriculum, and pedagogy, and to consider how activist voices and enactments might emerge differently through curriculum and pedagogy writ large. A guiding source of inspiration for this book, weaving among the emerging themes between the collected manuscripts, reflections, and poems, was a passage in Sara Ahmeds (2013) book, The Cultural Politics of Emotion. In this passage, Ahmed works through the complicated relationship between the testimonies of pain that injustice causes, the recognition of this pain, and the potential of these wounds to move us into a different relationship with healing (p. 200). The chapters, reflections, and poems within this volume, thus, effect a collective ideation on how specific cultural politics and deleterious ideological formations - racism, colonialism, homophobia, ableism, to name only a few - persist and mobilize. The authors seek to expose and name some of these injustices, asking readers not only see and hear these experiences, but to inhabit our complicities in their promulgation. It is important to acknowledge that these named social troubles do not exist in isolation, and will enmesh, weave, wind, and entangle with one another. The section headings parallel Ahmeds (2013) own ideations: testimony, recognition, and wounds, not as a formula to follow as an activist call, or as a model for a means to a more just end, but as a way to engage in these issues as a trope of activist confrontation of readers who are, as many of our authors suggest, complicit in maintaining many of these social troubles. The chapters do not need to be read in any particular order, though the ordering of the chapters moves from the naming of social troubles, to showing how teaching, research, and theory ask us to take a more active role in recognizing and acknowledging the prevalence of these issues, and then theorizing ways to engage the wounds"--
This link opens in a new window
The Power of Disability by
From a longtime disability rights activist comes this moving window into the lives of people with disabilities and the lessons they can teach us. Disabled people are strong. There is no group in history with more consistent experience at making their mark despite the deck being stacked against them. Al Etmanski's mission is to push back against ableism and show disabled people as authoritative sources on creativity, resilience, love, and meaning. In this inspiring book, he lays out ten lessons we can learn from the disabled, each one illustrated with stories of real people. Some names are familiar, like Stephen Hawking, Helen Keller, Stevie Wonder, Michael J. Fox, and Temple Grandin. Others less so, like Caroline Casey, who became the first Western female mahout (elephant rider) and rode solo across India despite being legally blind; Aaron Phillip, a trans woman with cerebral palsy who is a professional model; or Liz Etmanski, the author's daughter, a spoken-word poet and artist with Down syndrome. Recognizable or not, you will have no trouble relating to their stories and experiences and applying their insights to enrich your life.
This link opens in a new window
Disability, Hate Crime and Violence by
This book provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of disability, hate crime and violence, exploring its emergence on the policy agenda. Engaging with the latest debates in criminology, disability and violence studies, it goes beyond conventional notions of hate crime to look at violences in their myriad forms as they are seen to impact upon disabled people's lives. Despite a raft of relevant policy and legislation, few have attempted to draw together research on the disabled as victims of hate crime and violence. This innovative volume conceptualizes issues of disability, hate crime and violence and connects empirical research with theoretical insights. Making links between criminal justice policy, social care and welfare, it highlights areas of best practice and makes suggestions for policy and legislative reform. Disability, Hate Crime and Violence is written in accessible language, with minimal jargon and an international focus. Each chapter is grounded in research and practice, with relevant policy and legislation clearly signposted throughout. Disability, Hate Crime and Violence provides a much needed theoretical and practical investigation of the key issues around disabled hate crime and violence. It is an important work for students and academics researching and studying in disability studies, criminology, social policy and sociology,nbsp;as well as those with an interest in domestic violence studies and broader historical and philosophical constructions of disability, violence and social harms.
This link opens in a new window
Gifted Children of Color Around the World by
We live in a global society, wherein our dependence on our neighbors is growing more intensely each year. Technology, travel, and interdependent economic systems require that nations know more and share more of their natural resources. Among the most precious of these resources is the intellectual talent that resides in their countries. This edited volume sheds light on the unique challenges, trends, and intersecting issues related to identifying intellectual potential of children of color around the world, providing access to appropriate curriculum and instructional opportunities, addressing the professional capacities of teachers working with these students, and the role of diverse families and communities in the talent development process in these communities. To achieve the volume 'EUROs' objectives, the editors bring together expert scholars from around the world who have a vested interest in gifted children of color.
This link opens in a new window
Sounds Like Home by
New edition available: Sounds Like Home: Growing Up Black and Deaf in the South, 20th Anniversary Edition, ISBN 978-1-944838-58-4 Features a new introduction by scholars Joseph Hill and Carolyn McCaskill Mary Herring Wright's memoir adds an important dimension to the current literature in that it is a story by and about an African American deaf child. The author recounts her experiences growing up as a deaf person in Iron Mine, North Carolina, from the 1920s through the 1940s. Her story is unique and historically significant because it provides valuable descriptive information about the faculty and staff of the North Carolina school for Black deaf and blind students from the perspective of a student as well as a student teacher. In addition, this engrossing narrative contains details about the curriculum, which included a week-long Black History celebration where students learned about important Blacks such as Madame Walker, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and George Washington Carver. It also describes the physical facilities as well as the changes in those facilities over the years. In addition, Sounds Like Home occurs over a period of time that covers two major events in American history, the Depression and World War II. Wright's account is one of enduring faith, perseverance, and optimism. Her keen observations will serve as a source of inspiration for others who are challenged in their own ways by life's obstacles.
This link opens in a new window
Losing Vision, Not Dreams by
At 13, Noah Malone was diagnosed with Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy, a rare, incurable genetic disease that leads to central vision loss. A rising track and field star, Noah was suddenly legally blind and uncertain of his future. Today, Noah is a member of the U.S. Paralympic team and a student at Indiana State University. He has set records and competed internationally, and is one of the only legally blind Division I track athletes in the United States. In Losing Vision, Not Dreams, Noah shares his story of resilience, dedication, and overcoming adversity to inspire other athletes with disabilities and anyone facing obstacles along their life's path.
This link opens in a new window
Feminist Disability Studies by
Disability, like questions of race, gender, and class, is one of the most provocative topics among theorists and philosophers today. This volume, situated at the intersection of feminist theory and disability studies, addresses questions about the nature of embodiment, the meaning of disability, the impact of public policy on those who have been labeled disabled, and how we define the norms of mental and physical ability. The essays here bridge the gap between theory and activism by illuminating structures of power and showing how historical and cultural perceptions of the human body have been informed by and contributed to the oppression of women and disabled people.
This link opens in a new window