Call For Papers: Collection on Disability, Human Rights, and Humanitarianism

Dear all,

Please circulate widely.

Thanks,
Mike


CFP:  Collection on Disability, Human Rights, and Humanitarianism

Notwithstanding the rise of disability studies as a foundation for
university curricula and programming throughout the nation and across
the globe, the interstitial nature of the field (which enables
multivalent conversations about bodies, (im)mobility, and hegemonic
norms) has by and large been overlooked in scholarly evaluations of
human rights and humanitarianism. Even though disability is
specifically mentioned in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR), it is often cast as a symptomatic rather than a root
issue in human rights. And, the question of “what to do” with those
considered “disabled” necessarily accesses the problematical terrain
of humanitarianism (replete with considerations of care and
caregiving). This collection challenges those paradigms by relocating
disability studies from the margins to the center.

The editors seek to consider the following questions: What are the
lasting impacts of the reduction of disability benefits? How are
disabled people positioned in efforts to reduce poverty or address
inequalities? How does ablenationalism threaten disabled individuals
and their quality of life? Within a capitalistic system of production
and labor, how are disabled bodies configured as “expendable” or
“unnecessary” and in turn part of the “deserving poor”? How does the
UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (2008) hold
governments accountable for ensuring that their disabled citizens
receive opportunities to access their rights? The editors are also
particularly interested in papers that address any of the following
themes:

• Material aspects of disability including tensions between
material/ideological representations of disability
• Ramifications of the law vis-à-vis disability claims
• The precarious positioning of disability in human rights discourse
• Global perspectives on disability
• Sport and disability
• Feminist approaches to disability and human rights
• Expansive discussions on the intersections of disability with other
identity categories
• Engagements with critical race studies and queer theories
• Labor and class based analysis of disability and human rights
• Contemporary engagements with various crises (including the Occupy
movement and the Hardest Hit marches)
• Relationship between disability, refugee status, and freedom of movement
• LGBT/Disability asylum claims
• Notions of empathy and structures of compassion (by way of various
embodiments)
• Neoliberal and transnational analyses of disability and human rights
• Examination of pity and affect as well as the use of vulnerability
• Discussions of children and childhood including family structures
and care giving
• Custodial issues connected to disability

Deadlines:      June 30th, 2012: Abstract of 500 words sent to editors
                       September 30th, 2012: Full manuscripts sent to editors

Papers should be between 6000 and 7000 words, including notes and
works cited. All submissions will undergo review both by the editors
as well as external review through the press. Feel free to contact
Cathy Schlund-Vials (cathy.schlund-vials@uconn.edu

) and Michael Gill
(michael.gill@uconn.edu) for more information or to submit your
abstract.