Conferences & Events

Disability, Narrative, and the Law

Dates: February 16-17, 2006
Location: Moritz College of Law, Saxbe Auditorium, Columbus, OH
Website: http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/cilps/conference/2005-06/060216-dnl.html

This unique public interdisciplinary conference will draw together researchers from law and the humanities to explore how themes of autonomy and dependency, "normal" and "abnormal," innocence and fault, sameness and difference all play out in legal discussions about disability, and in the self-understanding of persons with disabilities. We will also feature outstanding practitioners to analyze how personal experience narratives concerned with disability bear on actual legal practice, how legal arguments get translated back into individuals' accounts of being disabled, and how tensions may arise between the highly individualized, personal experience of disability and the necessity of developing a pragmatic legal definition of disability under relevant statutory and case law.

Federation Rhetoric Symposium 2006

Theme: "Rhetoric & Kairos"
Date: February 24, 2006
Location: Texas Woman's University, Denton, Texas
Registration: Early Registration (Payments post-marked by January 1st): $10-$49; Late Registration (Payment after January 1st or at Conference:) $20-$59
Website: http://www.frs.suavecat.com/index.htm

The Distinguished Keynote Speaker will be Dr. Brenda Brueggemann of Ohio State University. Her research and teaching interests include Disability Rhetorics, Gender & Disability, Composition Studies, and Critical Theory. Dr. Brueggemann is the author of several important books, including Lend Me Your Ear: Rhetorical Constructions of Deafness. She is an Associate Professor of English, an Associate Faculty member of Comparative Studies - Women's Studies, the Co-Coordinator of the American Sign Language Program, and the Coordinator of the Disability Studies Minor - all at Ohio State University. She is also the Series Editor of "Deaf Lives," from Gallaudet University Press.

Registration and further information are available on the website.

Revolutions in Sign Language Studies: Linguistics, Literature, Literacy

Dates: March 22-24, 2006
Location: Kellogg Conference Hotel at Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C.
Registration: $250 General; $195 Student, includes all sessions, three breakfasts, three luncheons, and refreshments at all breaks.

Website: http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/gupiconference/program.html

This conference will examine the ways in which signed languages have and continue to reform our notions of what constitutes human language, literary production, and the basic definitions of literacy. Conference program and registration are available on the website.

Personal Perspectives & Social Impact: The Stories We Tell - The Sixth Annual Multiple Perspectives on Access, Inclusion & Disability

Dates: April 17-18, 2006
Location: Ohio State University
Website: http://ada.osu.edu/conferences.htm

The organizing theme for the sixth annual conference will be "Personal Perspectives & Social Impact: The Stories We Tell." The goal is to encourage presenters and participants to reflect on how personal experiences create and transform social, cultural, and legal realities. A look into what the psychologist Theodore Sarbin referred to as "the storied nature of human conduct."

2006 Disability Studies in Education Conference

Theme: "Disability Studies and Inclusive Education: Negotiating Tensions and Integrating Research, Policy & Practice"
Dates: May 18-21, 2006
Location: Michigan State University
Registration: $60 for full conference (before April 15, 2006); $100 after April 15 and on-site
Website: http://edr1.educ.msu.edu/DSEConf

Disability Studies in Education (DSE) is a special interest group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). For the last five years, this annual event has attracted researchers, professors, teachers, graduate students and other individuals who actively seek to change traditional theory and practice around disability within the fields of education and related interdisciplinary fields within social sciences, arts and humanities.

This year, the conference continues its custom of bringing together scholars, researchers, teachers, and agents of social change, all united through their interest in theorizing, politicizing, and reconceptualizing disability within the field of education.

The DSE's legacy in honoring promising and significant research, as well as innovative practice within Disability Studies in Education continues with the inclusion of several highlighted conference features: The Senior Scholar Award, The Junior Scholar Award, a special session on the History of Disability Studies in Education, invited keynote speakers, and special entertainment. Conferees may also take time to participate in the East Lansing Art Festival, 20-21 May.

Further information, call for proposals, and registration available on website.

Canadian Disability Studies Association, 2006

Theme: "The City: A Festival of Knowledge"
Dates: May 27-28, 2006
Location: York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The Canadian Disability Studies Association is holding its third annual conference at as part of the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

For further information, please contact Geoffrey Reaume through e-mail at: greaume@yorku.ca

Society for Disability Studies 19th Annual Conference

Theme: "Disability Goes Public: Re-Imagining Policy/Protest/Possibilities"
Dates: June 14-17, 2006
Location: Washington Plaza Hotel, Washington, D.C.
Registration: TBA
Website: http://www.uic.edu/orgs/sds/annualmeetings.html

Special Issue, Wagadu: Journal of Transnational Women's and Gender Studies

Theme: "Intersecting Gender and Disability Perspectives in Rethinking Postcolonial Identities"
Deadline for Abstracts: Jan 1, 2006
Deadline for Completed Essays: March 1, 2006.

This special issue of Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's and Gender Studies focuses on the intersections of gender and disability centered discourses, experiences and theories in rethinking postcolonial identities. This issue will include articles that are informed by disability centered analysis of Postcolonial identities, and intersections with a network of fields emerging from Culture Studies, such as critical race feminist theory, transnational feminism, visual and performative media, gender analysis, as well as film, environmental and global studies. In addition, articles exploring disability as a cultural construct and human rights discourse in relation to Postcolonial contexts, issues and theories are welcome. Some of the topics of investigation may deal with:

• Challenges to Postcolonial theorizing from intersecting gender and disability discourses.
• Impact of Postcolonial theories on analysis and representations of disability/gender issues, subjects, experiences and rights.
• Postcolonial Feminist disability theory.
• Analysis of social movements focusing on intersecting struggles for gender and disability rights in specific Postcolonial contexts.
• Representations of disability and bodies of difference in specific Postcolonial cultures and cultural productions.
• Critique of body and transbody phenomena and experiences as represented in futuristic literature and film, such as mechanical body snatchers, aliens, cyborgs and posthumans.
• Constructions of disability as represented or examined in Postcolonial theory, literature, film and/or art work.
• Challenges to identity norms in changing cultural landscapes and competing cultural influences.
• Exploring norms of sexuality, physical appearance, mental ability and social conformity in internet Arranged Marriages and Matrimonial web sites and their implications for subjects of disability.
• Theorizing Postcoloniality from Disability and GBLT subject positions.
• Emerging influence of popular western cultural ethos of physical fitness, beauty and body modification.
• Impact of Postcolonial/global phenomena such as war, environmental trauma, poverty and terrorism in rethinking ability/disability categories.
• Humanistic discourses of diseases (HIV-AIDS, Cancer, Polio, etc) and Postcolonial reframing of disability.
• Gendering disability and disabling gender.
• Corpulescence: studies of fatness as socially disabling image construction across cultures.
• "Starving Children": Charity and Media exhibitionism of "Third world" subjects of poverty.
• Transformative directions in specific disability rights activist movements worldwide and their specific links to other human rights activism.
• Disability centered reconsideration of values such as independence and self-reliance, especially as used in feminist discourses, towards concepts of interdependence and intersubjectivity.
• Disability and gendered perspectives in theorizing Postcolonial space, especially dealing with issues of accessibility.
• Disability culture as local and global phenomena.
• Migration and diasporic narratives of Postcolonial subjects of disability.

Please send Abstracts (75 words) in English by Jan 1, 2006, and complete essays (approximately 5,500-7,500 words) by March 1, 2006. Essays in other languages will also be considered. Submissions should be sent electronically in MLA or APA format to Dr. Pushpa Parekh: pparekh@spelman.edu
Website: http://web.cortland.edu/wagadu/

Michigan Feminist Studies: "Bodies: Physical & Abstract"

Theme: "Bodies: Physical & Abstract"
Deadline for Manuscript Submissions: January 5, 2006
Publication Date: 2005-2006 issue

Michigan Feminist Studies is an annual publication edited by graduate students at the University of Michigan. MFS particularly encourages interdisciplinary submissions, and has published papers in many disciplines, including (but not limited to) anthropology, sociology, psychology, literature, language & linguistics, science studies, history,

philosophy, art history, film, political science, and education. Emerging and established scholars, graduate students, independent scholars, and activists are invited to apply.

There is a rich history of feminist discourse, research, and analysis connected to the body. Some of these analyses have addressed the anorectic body or media representations of the female body. Others have explored the body in terms of physical and sexualized violence. Still others have focused on the body in terms of reproduction and reproductive control. Meanwhile, other discourses have interrogated the functioning and impact of abstract bodies, such as governing bodies and bodies of disciplinary knowledge.

This volume of Michigan Feminist Studies seeks to further engage with the subject of the body, with some new areas for possible focus and exploration. This issue will incorporate feminist research, discussions, readings, analyses and critiques that grapple with the body/bodies in both their physical and abstract forms. We are especially interested in submissions that draw linkages between physical and abstract bodies. We welcome contributions from all disciplines.

We also invite book and film reviews and visual studies related to this topic, as well as visual materials that may be considered for reproduction on the cover of this volume.

Topics may include: bodies of literature; cyber and/or virtual bodies; transnational and/or transglobal bodies; bodies of research; transgender, transsexual and/or intersexed bodies; liminal bodies; social bodies; imagined bodies; bodies of knowledge;

political bodies; governing bodies; "other(ed/ing)" bodies; bodies at war and/or warring bodies; classed bodies; colonized and/or colonizing bodies; sick, dying and/or dead bodies; the body as a canvas; bodies as weapons; disabled bodies; raced and racialized bodies; bodies as tools; disembodiment; classified bodies and/or bodies in the classifieds; bodies in movement(s) and/or motion; fat bodies; legislative bodies; bodies as subject and/or object; non-normative and/or normative bodies.

Manuscripts should be 4000-6000 words and double-spaced. Please submit three single-sided copies, and include a 150-200 word abstract, brief biographical note, institutional and departmental affiliation, address, telephone number, and e-mail

address. Papers may be submitted in the accepted format of your academic discipline (e.g., MLA, APA). If your paper is selected, you will be asked to submit an electronic file.

Mail submissions to: Michigan Feminist Studies
1122 Lane Hall
204 South State Street
The University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1290

Inquiries can be directed to mfs.editors@umich.edu.
www.umich.edu/~mfsed

Special Issue, Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal

Theme: "Parting the Waters: Disability and Deliverance in the Wake of Disaster"
Submission Deadline for Abstracts: January 6, 2006
Journal Website: www.rds.hawaii.edu

We are soliciting articles for a forum on disability and disasters, to be published as a special issue of the Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal (RDS). Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, and the lasting effects of 9/11, have created heightened awareness of the impact of disastrous events on people with disabilities. While much of the current interest within the field of Disability Studies in the impact of disasters upon the life circumstances of people with disabilities has been inspired by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, there are many reasons to regard this and other disasters as the critical nexus of a much larger conversation. The American hurricanes of 2005 followed months after a major Asian/East African tsunami and preceded a major earthquake in South Asia. Both claimed many more lives and incurred many more injuries and much more property damage even than occurred in the US. As always, such cataclysms always impact far more the largely overlapping categories of people with disabilities, the poor, and other socially-disadvantaged groups.

Like the culturally-defined status of dis-ability, the designation of ecological events as dis-asters is a social construct, in that ecologies are both natural and human. The large losses incurred recently within and beyond the disability community have more than climatic causes. Human solutions and preventative measures for such "natural" disasters are distinct possibilities. It must also be recognized that those who endure most in such circumstances are often held responsible for their own plight. It is as if disability issues that place persons at greater risk are a personal choice or a consequence of personal moral failure. This, of course, reprises old, ubiquitous and pernicious theories about the root causes of impairment and other difficulties, attributions of personal and/or collective failings, guilt or "sin."

We propose a forum that contemplates the social constructions of dis-ability and dis-aster as widely as possible, with regard to both subject and methodology. In addition to papers from U.S. authors, papers by authors from outside of the U.S. or that discuss these issues on an international scale are strongly encouraged. Papers might address any of the following topics, but are by no means limited to those suggested:

1. Inequities in the distribution of disaster relief as they impact people with disabilities.
2. Disability as the consequence of disasters, along with measures to address disability issues in the wake of disasters.
3. Findings from research on progress/best practices in the area of disaster preparation and relief for people with disabilities.
4. Increased vulnerability to disasters as a consequence of failure to implement disability accommodations in institutions, facilities, public policy and planning for emergencies.
5. Disability and illness as causes for disaster; blaming the victims; the impaired and ill as sinful and culpable.
6. Disability as metaphor for disaster in expressive and ideological discourse including but certainly not limited to literature, film, visual arts, and religion/scripture.
7. Research related to the lived experience of persons with disabilities in disaster areas.
8. Critical discourse analysis on media reactions to disasters, including the interplay of disability, race, poverty, and social services/charity.

Send via email to Alex Lubet, lubet001@umn.edu, Lori Rowlett, rowletl@uwec.edu, and Christopher Johnstone, john4810@umn.edu a 250-word abstract by January 6, 2006. Authors will be notified of acceptance by January 20. For those selected, we will request completed articles of approximately 3000-5000 words. Questions should be directed to Guest Editors: Alex Lubet (School of Music/Center for Jewish Studies/Program in American Studies, University of Minnesota) lubet001@umn.edu, Lori Rowlett (Departments of Philosophy & Religion and Women's Studies, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire), rowletl@uwec.edu, Christopher Johnstone (Institute on Community Integration, University of Minnesota) john4810@umn.edu.

Presentation Proposals, New York Institute of Technology in Manhattan Interdisciplinary Conference: "New York: City in Motion"

Deadline for Proposals: January 10, 2006
Conference Date: March 10, 2006
Conference Location: NYIT, New York City (Manhattan)

We seek presenters who will share their scholarship and perspectives on the City of New York as examined through the ideas of movement, mobility, and transformation. Panels and presentations may address motion either literally or figuratively as suggested by but not limited to the following categories:

• Transportation to or within New York
• Immigration to New York
• Migration to or within New York
• Building or improving infrastructure such as bridges
• Disaster/Evacuation Preparedness
• Business and investment trends that may transform New York
• Arts, film, and the theater as they capture the motion of New York
• Architecture and urban design as they reflect or influence the motion of New York
• Disability/Mobility/Accessibility in New York
• Literature addressing movement, mobility, or transformation in New York

The organizers welcome and encourage technology-enhanced presentations. Please submit 300-word proposal describing topic and format (such as paper, talk, slide presentation) for a 20-minute presentation along with vitae by January 10, 2006 to Lori Jirousek via email to LJirouse@nyit.edu or via US mail to:

Dr. Lori Jirousek
English Department
New York Institute of Technology
1855 Broadway
New York, NY 10023
Email submissions are preferred.

Theme Issue, The Public Historian

Theme: "The Public and Private History of Eugenics"
Deadline for Article Proposals: January 15, 2006

In the United States, over the course of the twentieth century, eugenics encompassed Progressive reform efforts to secure improved maternal and infant health care, racially motivated immigration policies, and coercive sterilization legislation. In its most virulent form, eugenics provided the impetus for race-based genocide during the Holocaust. Following World War II, state-ordered sterilization accelerated in some states, and eugenicists found a new arena in population control and family planning. In more recent years, eugenics has resurfaced within academia and the echoes of eugenics have been detected in stem-cell research and specialty sperm and egg donor firms. The shameful aspect of eugenics has compelled Governors of California, Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina to publicly apologize for their state's eugenics policies, particularly in regard to sterilization and reproductive surgeries.

This issue will explore the challenges of researching and writing about eugenics in all of its variations.

We welcome submissions about all aspects of eugenics history, especially those focusing on bringing the history of eugenics to the public. Possible topics include: forced or coercive sterilization campaigns; historical perspectives on cloning, in-Vitro fertilization and sperm banks; consumer eugenics; remembering eugenics in order to prevent it; stereotypical images and the history of normalcy; local, state-level and/or institutional efforts to expose or hide eugenics; development of exhibits or websites on the history of eugenics; native communities and eugenics; recovering the stories of the sterilized; and teaching eugenics.

Please submit a one-page proposal and short vita listing relevant qualifications by JANUARY 15, 2006 to:

Lindsey Reed
Managing Editor, The Public Historian
Department of History
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Email: lreed@ltsc.ucsb.edu

Special Issues, Disability and Rehabilitation

Theme: "Rural and developing world rehabilitation"
Deadline for Paper Submissions: January 31, 2006
Publication Dates: Summer 2006
Special Edition Editor: Andrew J. Haig, M.D., University of Michigan

Disability and Rehabilitation, published by Taylor and Francis, includes review articles, experimental and clinical research papers, case studies, clinical commentaries, reports on rehabilitation in practice, and major book reviews.  In it's 21st volume, it has attained international prestige with an impact factor of 1.144, ranking it among the top rehabilitation journals in the world.

Most of the world has limited access to rehabilitation services. Yet most established rehabilitation science aims at urban and industrialized regions.  To bring forth the expertise and knowledge of those who live in or study rural and isolated areas, the journal, Disability and Rehabilitation, is organizing two special
editions to address rural and developing world rehabilitation. Publication is slated for the summer of 2006.

Guidelines:
Please follow the journal's submission policies, which can be found at the website, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals, and then submit work directly to the special edition editor via email at andyhaig@umich.edu

For more information, please contact:
Andrew J. Haig, M.D.
The University of Michigan
325 E. Eisenhower
Ann Arbor, MI   48108
734-763-4300
andyhaig@umich.edu

SUPERFEST International Disability Film Festival Calls For Submissions

Submission Deadline: January 31, 2006
Festival Date: June 2006
Festival Location: San Francisco Bay area

SUPERFEST, the world's longest-running juried international disability film festival, seeks your submission to our 26th film competition. SUPERFEST is the primary international showcase for cutting-edge films that portray disability culture and experience in all its rich diversity.

We seek works about disability produced since January 1996. We especially want to encourage submissions by mediamakers with disabilities. A 1/2 inch VHS-NTSC preview format or DVD is required, along with a completed and signed entry and release form, and entry fee check. Final entry deadline: January 31, 2006 (post-marked). Early bird discount if mailed by Jan. 15, 2006. Judging takes place in Spring 2006, and winners will be announced on or around April 1st, 2006. Winners will be screened in the SF Bay Area in June, 2006, and all entries will be listed in the festival catalogue. Winners will be asked to provide still production photos and video or DVD copies for publicity purposes.

This Festival is funded solely by entry fees and small grants. Entry fees range from $30 to $90, depending on film length and production budget. To request an entry packet, send a legal size self addressed, stamped envelope to:

CDT,
P.O. Box 1107,
Berkeley, CA 94701;
Phone: 510-845-5576;
Email: Superfest@aol.com.

For detailed information, or to download an entry form, visit http://www.culturedisabilitytalent.org.

Court Rules Against Special Ed. Parents

November 14, 2005
Excerpted from work By Gina Holland, Associated Press Writer
Washington, D.C.

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that parents who demand better special education programs for their children have the burden of proof in the challenges. The ruling is a loss for a Maryland family that contested the special education program designed for their son with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The case required the court to interpret the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, which does not specifically say whether parents or schools have the burden of proof in disputes.

Retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, writing for the 6-2 court, said that when parents challenge a program they have the burden in an administrative hearing of showing that the program is insufficient. If schools bring a complaint, the burden rests with them, O'Connor wrote. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer wrote separate dissents.

"School districts are charged with responsibility to offer to each disabled child an individualized education program (IEP) suitable to the child's special needs. The proponent of the IEP, it seems to me, is properly called upon to demonstrate its adequacy," Ginsburg wrote.

O'Connor said the court was not ruling on a separate issue, whether states could set their own policies and put the burden on the school officials. The case is Schaffer v. Weast, 04-698.

Announcing Book Release: Moving Over the Edge, Artists with Disabilities Take the Leap by Pamela Kay Walker

October 31, 2005
Excerpted from release written by Michael Horton
Voice: (530) 848-6259
Email: MHM@MHortonMedia.com

Artist and arts advocate, Pamela Kay Walker, publishes her first book, "Moving Over the Edge, Artists with Disabilities Take the Leap." The book is about Walker's coming of age alongside other activists and artists with disabilities, against the backdrop of an emerging disability rights movement. The evolution from disability rights to disability culture is shown by featuring artists and groups that started in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1980s, including AXIS Dance Company, Bruce Curtis, David Roche, Cheryl Marie Wade and Wry Crips Disabled Women's Theater.

Walker is a veteran author, first published in 1976. Her works span genres from poetry to short stories, journal articles to theatrical plays, instructional materials to screen plays. Her experiences in Arts Administration include consulting for The National Endowment for the Arts, BBC, PBS, and The Rockefeller Foundation. She has served on multiple grant panels and planning committees. While a media maker and union actress herself, the majority of Walker's efforts have been towards improving the industry's inclusion of people with disabilities.

Each book is $25 + $1.81 sales tax for CA residents. Please add $5 for
shipping and handling to your order. Send check or money order to MH Media,
P.O. Box 687, Davis, CA 95617-0687. Or you can order through the website:
www.mhortonmedia.com. (Contact MH Media for price of 10 or more books.)

Latest Issue of A World Awaits You Now Available. Read about U.S. Teens with Disabilities Going Abroad!

October 10, 2005
Excerpted from release written by Melissa Mitchell, Mobility International USA
(541) 343-1284 (Tel/TTY)
(541) 343-6812 (Fax)
pr@miusa.org

Mobility International USA and the National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE) announces the release of its first online issue of A World Awaits You (AWAY), a web-based journal describing the successful experiences of individuals with disabilities in volunteer, internship, cultural and educational programs abroad. AWAY stories answer frequently asked questions and share the benefits of participating in international exchange programs. Read this issue at: www.miusa.org/ncde/away.

Stories in this issue of AWAY include exchange experiences in Australia, Bermuda, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Mexico and Wales. Readers will also find ideas for raising funds for study abroad, a checklist for becoming globally aware and helpful resource books and websites on international exchanges.

New Jersey Colleges Create Academic Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

October 7, 2005

Excerpted from The Chronicle of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/temp/email.php?id=gsfwj8fvx8qgut68u3ukfzqwchq0odyj

New Jersey colleges, Mercer County Community College and the College of New Jersey, announced on Thursday that they would create academic programs for students with intellectual disabilities. The programs would be among the first to treat students with mental retardation as fully capable of completing college-level work, and hope to develop practices that can be used throughout the nation.

The National Down Syndrome Society is providing $50,000 each to every year for the next three years to develop the programs. The first class of students is expected to begin in the 2005-6 academic year. Stephen and Laura Riggio, whose daughter has Down syndrome, donated the money.

The programs will be open to students with developmental disabilities, mental retardation, or Down syndrome. Both colleges plan to admit six to eight students a year and expect that they will become integral members of the student body. At both colleges, students with intellectual disabilities will take or audit regular classes.

The College of New Jersey will not grant degrees to students who have completed its four-year program. Administrators at Mercer said they were not sure how long students will stay in the program or how they will be recognized.

N.O.D. Announces Death of Founder and President Emeritus Alan A. Reich

National Organization on Disability's (N.O.D.) founder and President Emeritus, Alan A. Reich, passed away at his McLean, Virginia home on November 8, 2005. Mr. Reich retired in April 2005, after founding and leading N.O.D. for 23 years.

A memorial service was held for Alan Reich on Tuesday, December 13, 2005, at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, DC. Please visit the N.O.D. website at www.nod.org for further detail on Reich's life and work.

Society for Disability Studies: New Board Members

Excerpted from announcements written by Jim Ferris, President, SDS

In November, the Board of Directors of the Society for Disability Studies filled two board vacancies with the appointment of Jane Dunhamn and Steven Taylor. Dunhamn and Taylor will serve through the remainder of terms, which run through the 2006 SDS conference. The vacancies were created by the resignation Kate Seelman in August and Rosemarie Garland Thomson in September. After years of dedicated service to SDS, both Kate and Rosemarie found that other obligations would no longer permit them to participate in SDS governance.

Chris Bell, Jane Dunhamn, Anna Mollow, and Celestine Willis, were also recently elected to three-year terms on the Society for Disability Studies Board of Directors. Their terms will begin June 18, 2006, and extend through the SDS conference in 2009

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Lynn Manning Performs in Croatia

Lynn Manning, who performed at SDS 2004, recently engaged audiences in his autobiographical one-man show, WEIGHTS--One Blind Man's Journey, at the opening of the 4th International Festival of the Blind and Visually Impaired in Zagreb, Croatia, on October 7, 2005.
 
An audio version of WEIGHTS complete with accessible liner notes is now available on CD from Bridge Multimedia at www.bridgemultimedia.com.