Editors' Introduction Brenda Jo Brueggemann University of Connecticut Elizabeth Brewer Olson Central Connecticut State University

Hello, Dear Reader!

This issue includes eight articles. The eight pieces are grouped into pairs that engage similar topics and have the effect of four short dialogues; the authors in each pair further conversations in our field from different perspectives.

The first two articles consider the role of Critical Disability Studies in higher education. Yasmin Saady Snounu, Phil Smith, and Joe Bishop examine disability in Palestine, explaining how culture, law, and ongoing violence have shaped current attitudes toward disability. They suggest that university professors use Critical Disability Studies and Critical Discourse Analysis as methods to ultimately provide greater access to disabled students in institutions of higher education (using Palestinian universities as an example). The second paired article by Leyton Schnellert and coauthors reflect on their process of creating a cross-disciplinary faculty group dedicated to inclusion and disability rights at their Canadian university; in doing so, the authors share one way of enacting Critical Disability Studies.

The second article pair analyzes representations of disability in film. Maria Izquierdo critiques the mental debility trope in Birdman, and Benjamin Fraser reads the film Mones com la Becky [Monkeys Like Becky] as a global form of the new disability documentary cinema.

The third article pair examines non-Western responses to difference in particular contexts. Erin Raffety explains the abandonment and institutionalization of children with disabilities in China, and she extends her critique to the global politics of inter-country adoption. Fiona Hallett, Graham Hallett, and David Allan analyze the lived experiences of individuals in the Republic of Armenia in order to further our field's understanding of non-Western attitudes toward access and inclusion.

The last two paired articles utilize disability theory as a generative way to rethink two different practices: BDSM and the American media's representation of Donald Trump. Both articles make normalcy a central inquiry. Emma Sheppard offers a "cripistemology of chronic pain" and analyzes the role of BDSM in controlling pain. Then Byrd McDaniel and Paul M. Renfro offer a reading of Donald Trump media representations that rely on ableist rhetorics to categorize him as an abnormal and unfit political leader. McDaniel and Renfro ultimately argue that effective resistance to Trump and his policies must be rooted in disability justice and social justice, rather than in ableist critiques of fitness.

In other important DSQ news: the new DSQ Archives (with issues digitized and fully open-access around the world all the way back to 1982) have been open now for just over 5 months. At the SDS-OSU conference events on April 7-8, 2019, we carried out an opening session on Monday morning, April 8, devoted to a discussion of the new DSQ Archives. Leading that roundtable discussion were (in alphabetical order):

  • Sara M. Acevedo: Miami University of Ohio; SDS Board Policy and Publications Committee Co-chair and DSQ Liaison to the SDS Board.
  • (Moderator) Brenda Jo Brueggemann: University of Connecticut; Current DSQ Co-Editor, Former SDS Board President.
  • Noah Bukowski: Ohio State University, M.A./PhD. Student, English/Rhetoric & Composition, Disability Studies
  • Devva Kasnitz: SDS Executive Director, CUNY-SPS, Former SDS Board President
  • Philip Smith: Former SDS Board President
  • Maureen Walsh: The Ohio State University Libraries, Scholarly Sharing Strategist
  • Joanne Woiak: University of Washington, Current SDS Board President

Maureen Walsh, our DSQ-OSU Libraries key person lead, started off the discussion with some mind-blowing facts. In less than 5 months since the DSQ Archives have opened (and even without promotion/advertisement of that opening) over 13,000 people from around the globe have already accessed the DSQ Archives … from just over 100 different countries. While the United States recorded the highest number of access "hits" to the archives, Chinese access weighed in heavily as well. Access points to the DSQ archives came even from places like the Faroe Islands and Uganda. You can access the DSQ Archives yourself here: https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/79930
This URL for the DSQ Archives is located at the bottom of every page on the DSQ website: http://dsq-sds.org/ There is an active search field for the DSQ Archives that will take you to articles (based on their abstracts, key terms, and titles offered). It's wicked awesome, folks!

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