Thursday, February 26, 2015
Musings on the Plight of Britain's Disabled
Thinking about writing an essay on Albert Camus in relation to the plight of Britain's disabled. The "plague" is austerity and the disabled are the innocent who are made to suffer. But like Dr. Rieux, the disabled show fortitude, courage and persistence in the face of adversity. That is truly grace under pressure.
Interesting, too, that Camus not only grew up in poverty but suffered from tuberculosis throughout his life.
"The Plague" was published in 1947 and is obviously an allegory of the German occupation of France. While not outright accuse the Tory government of being Nazis, they do seem intent on sentencing Britain's disabled to a life of entrenched poverty and despair.
My vantage point is, admittedly, less than ideal, for I'm writing this from Canada—but even across the pond, distance can bring some perspective to an issue. supporting Britain disabled face onerous cuts to, and even loss of, disability benefits if the amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill are overturned
Interesting, too, that Camus not only grew up in poverty but suffered from tuberculosis throughout his life.
"The Plague" was published in 1947 and is obviously an allegory of the German occupation of France. While not outright accuse the Tory government of being Nazis, they do seem intent on sentencing Britain's disabled to a life of entrenched poverty and despair.
My vantage point is, admittedly, less than ideal, for I'm writing this from Canada—but even across the pond, distance can bring some perspective to an issue. supporting Britain disabled face onerous cuts to, and even loss of, disability benefits if the amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill are overturned
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Influential Disability Studies Professor Tobin Siebers Has Passed Away
Dear UMInDS community, colleagues, and friends,
I am writing with great sadness to let you know our dear Tobin Siebers died
today, long-standing Chair of our Initiative on Disability Studies, V. L.
Parrington Collegiate Professor, and Professor of English Language and
Literature and Art & Design at the University of Michigan.
We have lost a great champion for disability studies at our university, in
the wider US academic ecology, and in the development of our discipline
worldwide. Tobin has been a field-builder, a mover and shaker, and a
tireless advocate for a discipline that developed under his and his peers’
guidance.
Two of his recent books, Disability Aesthetics and Disability Theory, have
become field-defining, and can be found on reading lists around the world.
They present perspectives on disability’s cultural labor: how disability
appears in art, architecture, literature; how its presence and relational
web compels new insights into cultures, writing, and experience; and how
criticism can offer readers tools for thinking anew about bodies in public
space. One of Tobin’s first entries into the new canon of disability
studies was his non-fiction book Among Men: a beautifully elegant
essayistic book about what it meant to grow up into a disabled man, lover,
and father.
I have learned so much from my generous colleague and friend. I had the
great fortune to work with him as co-chair of our initiative, and as
co-teacher in our graduate classroom. His influence is everywhere:
countless scholars in our field have been mentored by him, and he has
validated so many of us in our shared quest to focus on disability as a
rich and exciting field of inquiry. His legacy lives on in his nourishing
critical perspective, his passion and presence, and it will continue to
thrive and grow in the thoughts his writings allow us to spin out.
Disability Studies lives both inside and outside the university, and Tobin
was always aware of multiple audiences, and of the need to think
capaciously about sources of knowledge and wisdom. Whatever your personal
relation to academic writing, I encourage you to re-read or read some of
Tobin’s moving and powerful work, and to take a moment to remember him and
his spirit through his lines. Below are a few links. In these essays, you
can trace the imagination, heart, and intellect of a man who has given so
much to all of us.
My thoughts are with Tobin’s wife and children, and with the wider circle
of the many students who have made him part of their chosen family.
There will be a memorial service for Tobin followed by a reception on
Friday, February 6th at 2:00 pm in the Michigan League Ballroom. The
public is welcome.
Before the memorial service, you are also very welcome to join the UMInDS
Symposium on Disability Studies, and the final sharing of the
international, national and local disability culture artists who are coming
together in the Duderstadt Video Studio on North Campus, honoring the
legacy of Tobin Siebers, from 10-1.
Some of Tobin Siebers’ writings:
My Withered Limb (Michigan Quarterly Review):
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/
Disability Aesthetics (Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory)
http://www.jcrt.org/archives/
Disability Theory (University of Michigan Press)
http://www.press.umich.edu/
The Art of Disability: An Interview with Tobin Siebers by Mike Levin
(Disability Studies Quarterly)
http://dsq-sds.org/article/
Petra Kuppers
Professor
English, Art and Design, Theatre, Women's Studies
University of Michigan
Artistic Director of The Olimpias: www.olimpias.org
New Book October 2014: Studying Disability Arts and Culture: An
Introduction (Palgrave).
http://www.palgrave.com/page/
I am writing with great sadness to let you know our dear Tobin Siebers died
today, long-standing Chair of our Initiative on Disability Studies, V. L.
Parrington Collegiate Professor, and Professor of English Language and
Literature and Art & Design at the University of Michigan.
We have lost a great champion for disability studies at our university, in
the wider US academic ecology, and in the development of our discipline
worldwide. Tobin has been a field-builder, a mover and shaker, and a
tireless advocate for a discipline that developed under his and his peers’
guidance.
Two of his recent books, Disability Aesthetics and Disability Theory, have
become field-defining, and can be found on reading lists around the world.
They present perspectives on disability’s cultural labor: how disability
appears in art, architecture, literature; how its presence and relational
web compels new insights into cultures, writing, and experience; and how
criticism can offer readers tools for thinking anew about bodies in public
space. One of Tobin’s first entries into the new canon of disability
studies was his non-fiction book Among Men: a beautifully elegant
essayistic book about what it meant to grow up into a disabled man, lover,
and father.
I have learned so much from my generous colleague and friend. I had the
great fortune to work with him as co-chair of our initiative, and as
co-teacher in our graduate classroom. His influence is everywhere:
countless scholars in our field have been mentored by him, and he has
validated so many of us in our shared quest to focus on disability as a
rich and exciting field of inquiry. His legacy lives on in his nourishing
critical perspective, his passion and presence, and it will continue to
thrive and grow in the thoughts his writings allow us to spin out.
Disability Studies lives both inside and outside the university, and Tobin
was always aware of multiple audiences, and of the need to think
capaciously about sources of knowledge and wisdom. Whatever your personal
relation to academic writing, I encourage you to re-read or read some of
Tobin’s moving and powerful work, and to take a moment to remember him and
his spirit through his lines. Below are a few links. In these essays, you
can trace the imagination, heart, and intellect of a man who has given so
much to all of us.
My thoughts are with Tobin’s wife and children, and with the wider circle
of the many students who have made him part of their chosen family.
There will be a memorial service for Tobin followed by a reception on
Friday, February 6th at 2:00 pm in the Michigan League Ballroom. The
public is welcome.
Before the memorial service, you are also very welcome to join the UMInDS
Symposium on Disability Studies, and the final sharing of the
international, national and local disability culture artists who are coming
together in the Duderstadt Video Studio on North Campus, honoring the
legacy of Tobin Siebers, from 10-1.
Some of Tobin Siebers’ writings:
My Withered Limb (Michigan Quarterly Review):
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/
Disability Aesthetics (Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory)
http://www.jcrt.org/archives/
Disability Theory (University of Michigan Press)
http://www.press.umich.edu/
The Art of Disability: An Interview with Tobin Siebers by Mike Levin
(Disability Studies Quarterly)
http://dsq-sds.org/article/
Petra Kuppers
Professor
English, Art and Design, Theatre, Women's Studies
University of Michigan
Artistic Director of The Olimpias: www.olimpias.org
New Book October 2014: Studying Disability Arts and Culture: An
Introduction (Palgrave).
http://www.palgrave.com/page/
Friday, December 12, 2014
[UK event] It’s Not Gibberish: ‘Disabled’ Voices in Literature for Young People
It’s Not Gibberish: ‘Disabled’ Voices in Literature for Young People
Prof. Chloë Hughes
Date: Wednesday 17th December 2014
Time: 2.15pm–3.45pm
Place: Eden 109, Liverpool Hope University, UK
What
overt and subtle messages in children’s and young adult literature
reinforce stereotypes or expand understandings of the social construct
known as disability? After briefly reviewing how disability has been a
means in art, literature, and history to render individuals impotent,
without identity, and ultimately voiceless, Prof. Hughes will focus on
real and fictional voices of individuals and characters with unique
communication patterns who claim and articulate their right to self
determination. Dyslexic, stuttered, “crooked,” interior, signed, and
computer-generated voices, as they appear in recently published
literature for young people, are illuminating and obscuring the
boundaries of ability and disability. How can teachers use such
literature to promote inclusion in their classrooms?
Chloë Hughes is Professor of Teacher Education at Western
Oregon University where she teaches literacy and diversity
classes. Her research focuses on literacy learning among individuals
with disabilities and on the portrayal of disability in children’s and
young adult literature. Her work has appeared in the Journal for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities; Rethinking Schools; War, Literature and the Arts; and the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies. She also chairs the US Board on Books for Young People Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities committee.
This seminar is part of the CCDS series, The Voice of Disability. Other dates include:
14 Jan 2015, It Must Be Simple: The Supreme Fiction at the Core of the Backlash to Access Debate, David Feeney.
11 Feb 2015, Authorship and the voice of disability in dance, Mathilde Pavis and Kate Marsh.
11 Mar 2015, Which Theory of Democracy for an Inclusive Society? A Pragmaticist Approach, David Doat.
13 May 2015,
The Voice of the Disability Activist Movement in the US around the
ADA: A Hidden Minority or a Hidden Army, Lennard J. Davis.
17 Jun 2015, ‘Working together for positive outcomes’: The Appropriation of Voice and Participation in SEN policy, Claire Penketh.
Also, Disability and Disciplines: The International Conference on Educational, Cultural, and Disability Studies will be held 1-2 July, 2015.
For further information please contact:
Dr. David Bolt
Associate Professor, Faculty of Education
Director, Centre for Culture & Disability Studies
Editor in Chief, Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies
Joint Editor, Literary Disability Studies
Email: boltd@hope.ac.uk
Telephone: 0151 291 3346
Office: HCA 012
Postal address: Faculty of Education, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, UK, L16 9JD.
Recent Books:
Changing Social Attitudes Toward Disability: http://www.routledge.com/
The Metanarrative of Blindness: http://www.press.umich.edu/
The Madwoman and the Blindman: https://ohiostatepress.org/Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Persons with Disabilities at Work: The Invisible Workers? Wednesday 10 December 2014 European Parliament | Room ASP 1E1 12:00 - 14:00
SAVE THE DATE
Persons with disabilities at work:
the invisible workers?
Wednesday 10 December 2014
European Parliament | Room ASP 1E1
12:00 - 14:00
Gender,
age, disability type and degree are factors that affect the extent of
inclusion of persons with disabilities in the labour market. Identifying
these factors
through data collection and providing a reasonable accommodation
through different employment policy schemes are key conditions for
overcoming a situation that has been aggravated by the economic crisis.
According
to the latest EU data, there is still a 26% difference in rates of
employment for persons with and without disabilities across the EU. This
is 30 points
lower than the Europe 2020 target of 75% employment for persons with
disabilities. Despite the implementation of different national and
regional policies aimed at increasing the participation of persons with
disabilities in the labour market, overall the participation
rate of persons with disabilities is significantly lower than for
persons without disabilities, which reinforces social inequalities.
The European Disability Forum, within the framework of its involvement in the
DISCIT project, organises a discussion with Eurostat and the main EU policy-makers to exchange information and data on
this important topic and gather innovative ideas on the field. Please find enclosed the agenda of this seminar.
We
kindly invite you to join this discussion by sending back the attached
registration form to EDF event organiser, Ann Vervaecke (ann.vervaecke@edf-feph.org)
by 4 December.
Communication
European Disability Forum | nothing about us without us
tel +32 2 282 46 04 | fax +32 2 282 46 09
lila.sylviti@edf-feph.org - www.edf-feph.org
Attachments https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4DDIATl4FpJeUJsMHdqQURsZE9DcDZGM0lKUWFkYm9lLUNB/view?usp=sharing; https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4DDIATl4FpJZkZiNEF2VlpEd2FWNzIwcjZzXzl2VVpuaXZr/view?usp=sharing
Thursday, November 27, 2014
'Hate Figure' Iain Duncan Smith Sings His Version of Supertramp's "Give A Little Bit"
"Give A Little Bit"
Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your hate to me
Give a little bit
I'll give a little bit of my hate to you
There's so much that we need to share
Send a tweet and show me your despise
I'll give a little bit
I'll give a little bit of my scorn to you
So give a little bit
Give a little bit of your timeline to me
See the disabled man with the lonely eyes
Take his hand, you'll be surprised
Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your hate to me
Give a little bit
I'll give a little bit of my hate to you
There's so much that we need to share
Send a tweet and show me your despise
I'll give a little bit
I'll give a little bit of my scorn to you
So give a little bit
Give a little bit of your timeline to me
See the disabled man with the lonely eyes
Take his hand, you'll be surprised
he's still alive under my reforms
Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your contempt to me
I'll give a little bit of my loathing for you
Now's the time that we need to share
So find yourself on Twitter, I'm on my way back home
Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your contempt to me
I'll give a little bit of my loathing for you
Now's the time that we need to share
So find yourself on Twitter, I'm on my way back home
to my mansion.
Going home to my £2million Tudor country pile
Don't you need to feel at home in Austerity Britain?
Oh yeah, Glenda, we gotta sing
Going home to my £2million Tudor country pile
Don't you need to feel at home in Austerity Britain?
Oh yeah, Glenda, we gotta sing
So stop giving me vile looks
and tweeting #IDSMustGo
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Iain Duncan Smith: The 'quiet man' has become the 'Teflon man'. Nothing sticks.
Emily Thornberry, the shadow attorney general, was sacked by Ed
Miliband for sneering at a family home draped with England flags. Anti-poverty
campaigner Jack Monroe was sacked by Sainsbury's after saying David Cameron
should resign for using his ‘dead son’ as a front to privatise the NHS.
So why wasn't Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions
Secretary, sacked in 2012 for his ignorant and heartless remarks after saying
that disabled Remploy workers were “not doing any work... just making cups of
coffee”?
Why wasn't Iain Duncan Smith sacked in 2014, after the
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) publicly admitted it was wrong, that it
should not have axed the disability benefits of Asperger's sufferer Mark Wood,
who starved to death just five months later, weighing five-and-a-half stone.
I could cite additional examples, but suffice it to say that Iain
Duncan Smith has committed more wrongdoing than Emily Thornberry and Jack Monroe
combined—and astonishingly, has not been forced to resign. The 'quiet man' has
become the 'Teflon man'. Nothing sticks.
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