It has been nearly a year since we assumed the co-editorship of DSQ. As you know, we inherited a backlog of nearly five hundred submissions and faced many other challenges as well (see https://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/article/view/9546/7896). We are proud to say we have made it through the submission backlog much sooner than we anticipated. This marks a significant milestone for restoring the journal to its normal operations and is a big monkey off our back.
We are excited about this spring issue. All of the articles in this issue seek to dispel preconceptions surrounding a range of topics relating to disability. The first two articles, by Rosiel Elwyn and Jessica Bacon, offer a critique of dominant psychological discourses and frameworks. Elwyn offers a powerful narrative of the weaponization of psychological licensing policies against clinicians with mental health issues. In a similar vein, Bacon argues the benefits of alternative alcohol addiction treatment programs for those who may feel disempowered by traditional twelve-step programs or who may lack full access to this type of programming. Davies, Rix, and Robb, through their study of fathers and their relationships with their disabled children, upend the perspective of parenting as a highly gendered, maternal act.
Finally, the next group of articles examine a variety of art forms, both traditional and modern. Dominic Robin re-examines the classic novel, The Old Man and the Sea, which should complicate views of Hemingway as a quintessentially ableist writer. From a film studies framework, Roanne Kantor introduces us to two Bollywood films that focus on Deaf characters, one more than fifty years old and the other much more recent. She posits that these particular Bollywood films have both affirmed and subverted ableist tropes regarding romantic relationships among disabled people. Turning to social media, while this is not typically regarded as being anywhere close to an art form, tweeting (Xing?) could be viewed as a modern art form: condensing and disseminating one's thoughts into a mere 280 characters. Adan Jerreat-Poole surveys a corporate Twitter (now X) campaign to promote mental health awareness, exposing both the problematicity of this campaign and the resistance that arose to counter this campaign's seemingly innocuous act.
Returning to our editorial process, we are pleased to announce the re-opening of the DSQ submissions portal. We invite all interested persons to submit their recent work for consideration (https://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/about/submissions) within our virtual pages. If you wish to submit your work, please follow the submissions guidelines carefully and ensure your paper is formatted according to the guidelines.
