The Editors of Disability Studies Quarterly, the oldest magazine of disability studies scholarship and the flagship publication of the Society for Disability Studies, are seeking nominations to the Editorial Board. The general purpose of the Editorial Board is to provide knowledgeable support for the publication of scholarship of the highest quality. Members of the Editorial Board are highly-regarded scholars and researchers from a variety of academic disciplines and areas of expertise. Editorial Board members typically serve for a period of three years with the possibility of renewal for additional terms.
Responsibilities of Board members include:
We invite nominations or self-nominations for service on the Disability Studies Quarterly Editorial board. Please send the current editors, Brenda Brueggemann and Scot Danforth, a brief letter of your interest that highlights your expertise in the field of Disability Studies and a current resume/cv. Electronic submissions are preferred.
This conference seeks to address the contemporary cultural production of disability within and across local and global contexts. Its focus is upon representation both in the sense of the production and circulation of particular narratives, ideas and images of disability and non-disability, and in the sense of the participation of disabled cultural practitioners in the production of culture.
We invite proposals from all stakeholders in the mass mediated production of disability across a variety of themes and from a diversity of perspectives within this disparate field of enquiry.
Submissions are invited from both disabled and non-disabled media producers and policy makers, creative practitioners, disability activists and academics.
Suggested themes include (but are not limited to):
policy and practice, television, film, radio, literature, life writing, journalism, comedy, advertising, new media, social networking, theatre, art, popular music, animation, gaming, and marketing and publicity in the charity and voluntary sectors.
Topics to include (but are not limited to):
The conference aims to be as varied and inclusive as possible so suggested formats include but are not limited to: round tables, forums, debates, panels, posters, creative pieces, DVDs, websites and media and art projects in progress. Sessions will be timetabled for 1hr 30mins.
Enquiries to Dr Lucy Burke, Department of English,Manchester Metropolitan University, email: l.burke@mmu.ac.uk
Co-editors: David J. Connor & Beth A. Ferri
It has been just over 20 years since the publication of Christine Sleeter's, Why is there learning disabilities? A critical analysis of the birth of the field in its social context. In this germinal publication, Sleeter argues that the category of LD emerged to fulfill a particular political and economic purpose during the Cold War threats to U.S. supremacy. She writes that the category of LD enabled parents
to differentiate and protect white middle class children who were failing in school from lower class and minority children, during a time when schools were being called upon to raise standards for economic and military purposes (1987, p. 212).
According to Sleeter, the category of LD allowed schools to explain the failure of white middle class children, who were having a difficult time dealing increased expectations for achievement, in ways that did not threaten white supremacy or the presumed worthiness of middle class children, their homes, or their families.
The prescience of Sleeter's argument to the emergence of disability studies in education is obvious. She writes that "rather than being a discovery of science," LD is a constructed category that allowed schools to maintain "race and class stratification., but in a way that appears to be based on innate human variation and objective assessment of individual characteristics" (p. 234). Sleeter's analysis was also one of the first to connect the construction of LD with racial and social class oppression — a topic that is still under theorized today.
Although Sleeter locates the emergence of the category of LD in the context of the Cold War era of industrial and military expansion, the U.S. is once again experiencing an increased emphasis on standards in education. Then, as now, we see an escalation of concern over academic ranking of children in the U.S. compared to other countries. Then, as now, the U.S. faces a threat to its status as the primary political power in the world. Then, and now, the government is responding to these challenges with an increased focus on raising standards.
The purpose of this special issue of DSQ is to revisit Sleeter's ideas about the construction of LD (and, by implication, the construction of disabilities, "school-based" and otherwise), while bringing her work in conversation with contemporary debates and analyses within disability studies and disability studies in education.
The issue will begin with a reprinting of Sleeter's 1987 article (pending necessary permission), or an introductory article by Sleeter where she revisits her earlier article and puts it in a contemporary context. Each contributor will be asked to build on or engage with Sleeter's original work in some way.
Some potential themes that could be developed in the issue are listed below in no particular order:
We invite articles from a wide range of potential contributors in the fields of critical special education and disability studies, including both established and emerging scholars. We also seek a variety of stakeholder perspectives, such as educators, students, parents, other professionals, policy-makers, and individuals who identify as learning disabled. All manuscripts will be peer reviewed. Both scholarly and creative work will be featured in the issue.
Manuscripts must be in the form of a Word document and:
If you prefer to submit a hard copy of your article, it should be typed on one side of letter size white paper, double-spaced throughout, including the reference section. Please enclose four (4) copies in an envelope postmarked by February 1, 2009 to Dr. David J. Connor, Room 917W, Department of Education, Hunter College, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065.
Please send manuscripts in electronic form to both dconnor@hunter.cuny.edu and baferri@syr.edu by February 1, 2009. If you have any questions, please contact David or Beth at the e-mail address above.
| February 1, 2009 | Submission of papers for review |
|---|---|
| July 1, 2009 | Papers returned to authors for revisions |
| Oct 1, 2009 | Revised papers sent to editors |
| Dec 1, 2009 | Papers returned to authors for further revisions (as needed) |
| Jan 15, 2010 | All revised papers (as needed) sent to editors |
| Feb 15, 2010 | Papers ready for copyediting by DSQ |
| Spring 2010 | Special edition of DSQ |
Co-editors: Emily Thornton Savarese, University of Iowa, and Ralph James Savarese, Grinnell College
We are looking for completed articles, from a disability studies perspective, on what the medical community refers to as ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). We are especially interested in pieces that engage the so-called "low-functioning" end of the spectrum, where increasingly those presumed retarded and lacking social awareness are writing back to the empire of science. As the field of disability studies has theorized cognitive difference, it has had to refine its cherished social-constructionist approach, making sure to account for physiological distinctiveness in the organ of sensibility, a distinctiveness that has been interpreted in a myriad of ways, most quite prejudicial. We are interested in the burgeoning neurodiversity movement, which has self-consciously resisted such prejudicial interpretations, often revealing the "science" of autism to be anything but reliable and objective. How to talk about autistic difference? How to represent it? How to convey its gifts and challenges? Who can talk about it? What role should parents play in this representational arena? What role should teachers, doctors, researchers, therapists, media entities, and academics play? What kind of interdisciplinary approaches are needed to understand, respect, and even cherish autism?
We are open to the widest array of progressive approaches and topics. The latter include, but are not limited to issues of
Questions or queries may be sent to emsavarese@hotmail.com or savarese@grinnell.edu
.