Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities: 1st (First) Edition

by Sharon L. Snyder

The editors argue that disability is central to the human experience and that this centrality pervades language and literature. They present 24 articles that seek to integrate (in the widest sense) the study of disability as a subject of critical inquiry and as category of critical analysis in teaching and scholarship and to offer strategies for integrating people with disabilities into the classroom and the profession. The articles are organized into sections that reflect those different goals. The CD-ROM contains XML and ASCII versions of the text, included for persons with visual disabilities. Annotation c. Book News, Inc.,Portland, OR

Genres: Disability, Disability Studies, Feminism, Research, Academic, Nonfiction, Politics

Paperback

First published September 28, 2002

About the author

Sharon L. Snyder is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a leading scholar in Disability Studies, coauthoring Narrative Prosthesis and coediting key works including The Body and Physical Difference and The Encyclopedia of Disability.

Reviews

[Melissa Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

First published in 2002, "Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities," edited by Sharon L. Snyder, Brenda Jo Brueggemann, and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, is a seminal work in the academic field of disability studies. This essay collection is an excellent introduction to the topic of disability and how to apply disability studies to other methods of inquiry.

My favorite essay in the book was the first one: "Narrative Prosthesis and the Materiality of Metaphor," by David T. Mitchell. This essay was expanded into a book that I'd like to read.

The co-editors of this collection all contributed strong essays as well.

Reading a book like this is certainly rewarding -- it's tremendously educational and stimulating -- but it sure isn't fun. Grappling with ableism and the realities of disability is mental and emotional labor. And because so much of the physical human world still actively bars people with disabilities from participating in social events, and readily promotes works of art that spread the message that people with disabilities are better off dead, these essays are sad and draining to read. As much as I wish the world were better, the world is simply the world: ableist af.

I'm incredibly grateful to the disability studies scholars who created this field of research, and to everyone who keeps expanding our minds with new insights. It's tremendously important work, and certainly needed.

Five stars.

[Victoria Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book includes articles from some of the biggest names in disability studies in the humanities to create a fundamental text for disability criticism. Split into four sections (Enabling Theory, Autobiographical Subjects, Rehabilitating Representation, and Enabling Pedagogy), Disability Studies tracks a path to accomplish exactly what the title suggests: enable the humanities.