Nora O’Neill, an MD/PhD student at Yale University, discusses her research on feminist disability activism in 1980s/1990s Boston. Episode Image: A close-up photograph of a white t-shirt with a pink logo. In the center is the female sex symbol, a cross topped by a circle, which makes up the wheel of the wheelchair symbol that sits on top. The captio…

Doug Crandell discusses his latest book, Twenty-Two Cents an Hour: Disability Rights and the Fight to End Subminimum Wages. Episode Image: Cover of Twenty-Two Centers an Hour: Disability Rights and the Fight to End Subminimum Wages by Doug Crandell. The cover is white with twenty-two pennies laid out in four columns. The title is printed among the …

Allison C. Carey, Pamela Block, and Richard K. Scotch discuss their co-authored book, Allies and Obstacles: Disability Activism and Parents of Children with Disabilities. Episode Image: Cover of Allies and Obstacles by Allison C. Carey, Pamela Block, and Richard K. Scotch. The cover is white with a light blue border framing the title of the book an…

Sandy Sufian discusses her latest book, Familial Fitness: Disability, Adoption, and Family in Modern America. Episode Image: Cover of Familial Fitness by Sandra M. Sufian. The cover is white with an indigo blue newborn’s footprint on it. The footprint looks like the prints taken for birth certificates right after a baby is born. Download mp3 file h…

Guest host Isabelle Avakumovic-Pointon talks with Dr. Maria Bucur, Dr. Frances Bernstein, Dr. Maria Cristina Galmarini, and Dr. Magdalena Zdrodowska about the history of disability in Eastern Europe. Episode image: A disabled Soviet veteran with no legs sits in a wheelchair that rolls several inches above the ground. He sits on a street curb surrou…

Guest host Emma Wathen interviews Sami Schalk about her new book, Black Disability Politics. Episode Image: Cover of Black Disability Politics by Sami Schalk. The words are a faint yellow color set against a black background, with red horizontal bars above and below the title “Black Disability Politics.” Download mp3 file here. Download pdf transcr…

Ryan Lee Cartwright discusses their new book, Peculiar Places: A Queer Crip History of White Rural Nonconformity. Episode Image: Cover of Peculiar Places by Ryan Lee Cartwright. The cover is a pastiche of craft-like images set against a beige backdrop. The images include a rough wooden cabin, a ladder, lace doilies, and a reddish mountaintop. Downl…

Lisa Iezzoni discusses her new book, Making Their Days Happen: Paid Personal Assistance Services Supporting People with Disability Living in Their Homes and Communities Episode Image: Cover of Making Their Days Happen, by Lisa I. Iezzoni. The cover features a painting of a wide yellow bungalow, with ramps to the front door and side deck. The house …

Hannah Zaves-Greene discusses her work on Jews and the “public charge provision” in US immigration history. Episode Image: An extract of the 1917 US Immigration Act. The text begins: “Sec. 3. That the following classes of aliens shall be excluded from admission into the United States: All Idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, epileptics, insane…

Leah Richier discusses her work on mental hospitals in the US South. Episode Image: Patient ledger from South Carolina State Hospital. Photograph of the spine of a decaying nineteenth-century ledger book. The book is sitting on a table, with a chair back and window visible in the background. Typed archival labels on the book’s spine read “SC State …

Jim Odato discusses his new book on disability activist and Mouth editor Lucy Gwin. Episode Image: This Brain Had a Mouth: Lucy Gwin and the Voice of Disability Nation, by James M. Odato. The cover shows a black-and-white portrait of Lucy Gwin sitting by a computer. She is a white woman with short dark hair, wearing a dark shirt. Download mp3 file …

Chelsea Chamberlain discusses her research on the history of Pennsylvania’s Elwyn School. Episode Image: Black and white engraving of Elwyn School. The image shows a large four-storey building with several wings, sitting on manicured grounds. Several people walk on paths in front of the building. The engraving is labelled “Pennsylvania Training Sch…

A brief introductory podcast addressing some basic logistical elements of the course. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/raphaelraphael/message

Intro to course nuts and bolts procedures --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/raphaelraphael/message

Susan Burch discusses her new book on the individuals, families, and communities who were affected by Canton Asylum. Episode Image: Committed: Remembering Native Kinship in and beyond Institutions, by Susan Burch. The cover shows an image of a quilt with colourful circles on a white field. Each circle features different patterned fabrics radiating …

Martin Atherton discusses his career and research in Deaf Studies, deaf history, and beyond! Episode Image: Deafness, Community and Culture in Britain: Leisure and Cohesion, 1945-95, by Martin Atherton. The book cover features a black-and-white photo of a group of about 25 people posing in front of a bus. They are wearing suits and coats. Download …

Opening thoughts and procedures. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/raphaelraphael/message

A brief overview of some of the central logistics of our ongoing daily course activities. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/raphaelraphael/message

Philippa Campsie discusses her new article on Charles Barbier, Louis Braille, and the story of raised-point writing. Episode Image: Raised point writing from Charles Barbier’s Essai sur divers procédés d’expéditive française. The image has three grids. On the left, twenty-five letters of the alphabet are mapped on a 5 by 5 grid. Each letter would c…

Nicholas Hrynyk (University of Toronto) discusses his work on queer and disability history, including his recent article on HIV/AIDS, masculinity, disease, and disability. Episode Image: Cover of The Body Politic‘s October 1981 issue. The magazine subtitle is “A Magazine for Gay Liberation.” One of the featured headlines reads “‘Gay’ cancer? Or mas…

Ravi Malhotra (University of Ottawa) discusses his new book, co-authored with Benjamin Isitt, about the life and work of American-Canadian socialist radical E.T. Kingsley. Episode Image: Able to Lead, by Ravi Malhotra and Benjamin Isitt. The cover features a black-and-white image of E.T. Kingsley, a middle-aged white man who stares intently at the …

This short podcast goes over final tasks in the course: 1. peer reviews procedure; and 2. basic ideas and frameworks of disability studies that should inform your work. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/raphaelraphael/message

Micah Khater (Yale University) discusses her dissertation on the history of Black women, escape, and Alabama prisons. Episode Image: Wetumpka Prison, Alabama, c. 1910s. The image is sepia-toned, and shows an approximately three-story brick building with ornamental wood trim. Source: Alabama Department of Archives and History. Download mp3 file here…

Nicole Belolan discusses her work on the material culture of gout in early America, as well as public history, pedagogy, and more! Episode Image: Thomas Rowlandson, Comfort in the Gout, Hand-colored etching (London, 1785), 10 3/4 × 14 5/16 in., The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959, 59.533.115, The Metropolitan Museum o…

This opening podcast goes over basic format of the course. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/raphaelraphael/message

Bruce Dierenfield and David Gerber discuss their new book, Disability Rights and Religious Liberty in Education: The Story of Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District. Episode Image: Cover of Disability Rights and Religious Liberty in Education, by Bruce J. Dierenfeld and David A. Gerber. It shows two adults with dark hair holding the hands of…

Emer Lucey (University of Wisconsin-Madison) discusses her dissertation on memoirs and guidebooks by and for parents of children with disabilities. Episode Image: Clara Park’s The Siege (1967), one of the first parents memoirs about a child with autism. The cover shows a black and white image of two blonde girls against a blue background. The text …

Coreen McGuire (Durham University) discusses her award-winning work on technology and the categorization of disability. Episode Image 1: A mosaic of health-related posters. One poster, for example, is an advertisement for Chesterfield cigarettes featuring Santa Claus. Another poster shows a shirtless man flexing his muscles, and the text reads “Hea…

Delia Steverson (University of Florida) discusses Delores Phillips’s The Darkest Child and other intersections between disability and African American literature and history. Episode Image: The Darkest Child, by Delores Philips. The cover shows a young Black woman wearing a yellow hair bow and gold earrings. Download mp3 file here. Download pdf tra…

Carolyn Speer and Jay Price (Wichita State University) discuss accessibility in the classroom and beyond. Episode Image: Pizza Hut Museum, located at Wichita State University’s Innovation Campus. The museum is a small brick building with a black roof. A modern sign in front reads “Pizza Hurt Museum: The Original Pizza Hut.” Source: wichita.edu Down…

Stefanie Hunt-Kennedy (University of New Brunswick) discusses her new book, Between Fitness and Death: Disability and Slavery in the Caribbean. Episode Image: Between Fitness and Death, by Stefanie Hunt-Kennedy. The cover features an image of a group of enslaved people, who can only be seen from the waist down. One person has fallen to the ground. …

Liz Jackson and Natalie Wright discuss their Functional Fashions exhibit and other projects. Episode Image: Functional Fashions for the Physically Handicapped, by Helen Cookman and Muriel Zimmerman. The cover has red drawings of a skirt and jacket, pants and jacket, and a child’s dress. Source: Chipstone.org Download mp3 file here. Download pdf tra…

In this podcast, we talk with renowned Professor and Historian Dr. Steve Brown, Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Founder of Institute on Disability Culture. Part 1: -Brown's introduction to thinking about Disability Culture Part 2: -Important texts in Disability Culture -Participation in Formation of international journal Review o…

In this podcast, we talk with renowned Professor and Historian Dr. Steve Brown, Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Founder of Institute on Disability Culture. Part 1: -Brown's introduction to thinking about Disability Culture Part 2: -Important texts in Disability Culture -Participation in Formation of international journal Review o…

Bess Williamson (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) discusses her new book on disability and design in US history. Episode Image: Cover of Accessible America by Bess Williamson. It features design drawings of ramps, tinted in bold colours like green, blue, and orange. Download mp3 file here. Download pdf transcript here. About Our Guest Dr. Be…

Jason Ellis (University of British Columbia) discusses his new book on the history of special education in Toronto and beyond. Episode Image: A Class by Themselves, by Jason Ellis. The cover shows a black and white photo of a boy arranging blocks on a board. A young woman in a white coat sits across the table from him, taking notes. Download mp3 fi…

Jen Hale, archivist at the Perkins School for the Blind, discusses the school’s history and collections. Episode Image: Exhibition of the Girls’ Manual Training Department, Perkins Institution. A group of girls sits in a circle knitting with two instructors helping. The girls wear dresses with lace collars, most have large bows in their hair, and a…

Natalie Lira (University of Illinois) discusses her work on eugenic sterilization, race, and reproductive justice in California. Episode Image: Aerial photograph of Sonoma State Home, from 1950-52 Biennial Report of the California Department of Mental Hygiene, courtesy of Alex Wallerstein. The black and white image shows manicured grounds and numer…

Michael Davis (Hampton University) discusses his research on the Wright Brothers and Edgar Cayce. Episode Image: Portrait of the Wright Brothers, c. 1908. The image shows two tall, thin white men wearing suits and bowler hats. One has a moustache; the other is clean-shaven. Download mp3 file here. Download pdf transcript here. About Our Guest Dr. M…

Camille Owens (Yale University) tells the story of nineteenth-century child performer Oscar Moore. Episode Image: Photo of “‘Bright’ Oscar Moore,” produced by Anderson at 785 Broadway, NY. The black and white image shows a young Black boy wearing an elaborate velvet suit with a large lace collar and cuffs. Source: Beinecke Library, Yale. Download m…

Iain Hutchison (University of Glasgow) discusses his work on disability history in Scotland. Episode Image: Dr. Moon’s Embossed Alphabet for the Blind, from William Moon and his Work for the Blind, by John Rutherfurd (1898). The image shows an English alphabet depicted with streamlined raised forms, like semi-circles, straight lines, and right angl…

Ayah Nuriddin (Johns Hopkins University) discusses the history of Maryland’s Crownsville State Hospital. Episode Image: Black and white image of Crownsville State Hospital, c. 1915. A large brick building with multiple wings. Source: asylumprojects.org http://dishist.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Edited-Ayah-Interview.mp3 Download mp3 here. Downlo…

Director Michael Hudson discusses the history of APH, the museum’s exhibits and collections, and accessible museum practice. Episode Image: The Callahan Gallery at the Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind. This section features “The First Book for Blind People.” The book is inside a glass case. In front, there is a telephone handset …

Professor David Gerber (University of Buffalo) discusses this classic 1946 film about servicemen readjusting to civilian life after World War II. Episode Image: Lobby card from The Best Years of Our Lives. The card features an image of serviceman dancing with a woman in a purple suit. Below, five actors from the film smile at the camera. Source: li…

Dr. Laurel Daen discusses her award-winning article. Episode Image: Cut paper card by Martha Anne Honeywell, c. 1830. A decorative pink blossom and green leaves made of precisely cut paper. In the centre, the Lord’s Prayer is written in a space as small as a five-cent piece. Source: metmuseum.org http://dishist.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Edited…

Dr. Nancy Hansen (University of Manitoba) discusses disability history and activism in Canada. Episode Image: Untold Stories, edited by Nancy Hansen, Roy Hanes, and Diane Driedger. The cover shows a small wooden model of a bunkbed and a wheelchair. Two dolls sleep in the bunkbed; one is lying next to a skeleton. A flag on the wheelchair reads “My w…

Dr. Laura Micheletti Puaca discusses her chapter, “The Largest Occupational Group of All the Disabled: Homemakers with Disabilities and Vocational Rehabilitation in Postwar America,” which was published in the collection Disabling Domesticity (2017) and won one of the Disability History Association’s publication awards. Episode Image: “You can do f…

Dr. Hannah Thompson discusses her new book, Reviewing Blindness in French Fiction, 1789-2013. Episode Image: Cover of Reviewing Blindness in French Fiction, 1789-2013, by Hannah Thompson. It features an image of a hand reading a Braille book. Download mp3 file here. Download pdf transcript here. About Our Guest Dr Hannah Thompson (Hannah.thompson@r…

Haley Gienow-McConnell discusses her research on representations of disability in the hit 1970s TV show The Waltons. Episode Image: TV Guide, August 21, 1976. The cover shows three members of the Waltons cast: an older white man wearing overalls and a hat, an older white woman wearing a cotton dress and holding a basket of eggs, and a young white m…

In the final part of his series, Peter White reveals the birth of a modern disabled identity in the 19th century - through the lives of some extraordinary independent blind women. Peter says, 'I'm used to people describing me as disabled. Fair enough, I can't see. But I do wonder sometimes whether putting me into a disabled category really makes mu…