Synopses & Reviews
"Long overdue,
Claiming Disability both carves out a new field of study, and introduces and educates readers to disability studies as a vibrant space of intellectual work. Linton weaves in and out of disciplinesqueer studies, traditional educational psychology, literary criticism, critical legal studieswithout a blink. Both precise and expansive, she declares and defines disability studies in ways that are systematic, theoretically engaging, and policy-relevant."
Michelle Fine, City University of New York
"Claiming Disability is the most comprehensive book in disability studies to come along yet. It wisely defines terms and concepts, linking them to and questioning the dominant issues in identity politics and multiculturalism, while mapping a direction for future study. A must read for anyone seriously thinking about the body and body politics in the postmodern era."
Lennard Davis, author of Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness and the Body
"Provides a broadened and enriched definition of disability, and its author unfolds a compelling way to evaluate Special Education."
Laurie R. Lehman, Educators for Urban Minorities
From public transportation and education to adequate access to buildings, the social impact of disability has been felt everywhere since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. And a remarkable groundswell of activism and critical literature has followed in this wake.
Claiming Disability is the first comprehensive examination of Disability Studies as a field of inquiry. Disability Studies is not simply about the variations that exist in human behavior, appearance, functioning, sensory acuity, and cognitive processing but the meaning we make of those variations. With vivid imagery and numerous examples, Simi Linton explores the divisions society createsthe normal versus the pathological, the competent citizen versus the ward of the state.
Map and manifesto, Claiming Disability overturns medicalized versions of disability and establishes disabled people and their allies as the rightful claimants to this territory.
Review
"Claiming Disability is the most comprehensive book in disability studies to come along yet. It wisely defines terms and concepts, linking them to and questioning the dominant issues in identity politics and multiculturalism, while mapping a direction for future study. A must read for anyone seriously thinking about the body and body politics in the postmodern era." - Lennard Davis, author of Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness and the Body
Review
"Provides a broadened and enriched definition of disability, and its author unfolds a compelling way to evaluate Special Education." - Laurie R. Lehman, Educators for Urban Minorities
Review
"Long overdue, Claiming Disability both carves out a new field of study, and introduces and educates readers to disability studies as a vibrant space of intellectual work. Linton weaves in and out of disciplinesqueer studies, traditional educational psychology, literary criticism, critical legal studieswithout a blink. Both precise and expansive, she declares and defines disability studies in ways that are systematic, theoretically engaging, and policy-relevant."
"Claiming Disability is the most comprehensive book in disability studies to come along yet. It wisely defines terms and concepts, linking them to and questioning the dominant issues in identity politics and multiculturalism, while mapping a direction for future study. A must read for anyone seriously thinking about the body and body politics in the postmodern era."
"Provides a broadened and enriched definition of disability, and its author unfolds a compelling way to evaluate Special Education."
Review
“Persuasively argued. . . . A fascinating study that makes a real contribution to discussions of health, wellness and faith in America.“-Publishers Weekly,
Review
“An exploration of the history and practices of black healers and healing illuminating the vital cultural, intellectual, and spiritual expression of a people. This fine multidisciplinary work draws deeply and thoughtfully from the experiences and words of its subjects, offering alternative visions of human creativity, resistance, and community.”
-Yvonne Chireau,author of Black Magic: Religion and the African-American Conjuring Tradition
Review
“A readable book well suited for most academic libraries.”
-Choice,
Review
“African American Folk Healing is an insightful work that places folk healing within the context of larger spiritual, political, and intellectual movements. It illuminates the interconnectedness among activism, medicine, gender studies, folklore, and theology that influence the ways African American female healers work and live.”
-The Journal of African American History,
Review
“According to the author, African American folk healing sees sickness as arising from situations that break ‘relational connections of the unborn, the born, and the dead, which are intertwined.”
-Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute,
Synopsis
From public transportation and education to adequate access to buildings, the social impact of disability has been felt everywhere since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. And a remarkable groundswell of activism and critical literature has followed in this wake.
Claiming Disability is the first comprehensive examination of Disability Studies as a field of inquiry. Disability Studies is not simply about the variations that exist in human behavior, appearance, functioning, sensory acuity, and cognitive processing but the meaning we make of those variations. With vivid imagery and numerous examples, Simi Linton explores the divisions society createsthe normal versus the pathological, the competent citizen versus the ward of the state.
Map and manifesto, Claiming Disability overturns medicalized versions of disability and establishes disabled people and their allies as the rightful claimants to this territory.
Synopsis
A comprehensive assessment of the field of Disability Studies that presents beyond the medical to dig into the meaning
From public transportation and education to adequate access to buildings, the social impact of disability has been felt everywhere since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. And a remarkable groundswell of activism and critical literature has followed in this wake.
Claiming Disability is the first comprehensive examination of Disability Studies as a field of inquiry. Disability Studies is not simply about the variations that exist in human behavior, appearance, functioning, sensory acuity, and cognitive processing but the meaning we make of those variations. With vivid imagery and numerous examples, Simi Linton explores the divisions society creates--the normal versus the pathological, the competent citizen versus the ward of the state.
Map and manifesto, Claiming Disability overturns medicalized versions of disability and establishes disabled people and their allies as the rightful claimants to this territory.
Synopsis
Cure a nosebleed by holding a silver quarter on the back of the neck. Treat an earache with sweet oil drops. Wear plant roots to keep from catching colds. Within many African American families, these kinds of practices continue today, woven into the fabric of black culture, often communicated through women. Such folk practices shape the concepts about healing that are diffused throughout African American communities and are expressed in myriad ways, from faith healing to making a mojo.
Stephanie Y. Mitchem presents a fascinating study of African American healing. She sheds light on a variety of folk practices and traces their development from the time of slavery through the Great Migrations. She explores how they have continued into the present and their relationship with alternative medicines. Through conversations with black Americans, she demonstrates how herbs, charms, and rituals continue folk healing performances. Mitchem shows that these practices are not simply about healing; they are linked to expressions of faith, delineating aspects of a holistic epistemology and pointing to disjunctures between African American views of wellness and illness and those of the culture of institutional medicine.
About the Author
A longtime disability rights scholar,
Simi Linton is founder and President of Disability/Arts, an organization devoted to working with artists and cultural institutions to help shape the presentation of disability in the arts and to increase the representation of work by disabled artists. She is also a founder and co-director of the Disability Studies Project, a curriculum development project at Hunter College in New York.