Events

April 27-28, 2013 - Pacific Rim International Forum on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Pacific Rim International Forum on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, April 27th and April 28th, 2013 Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu. Hawaii,  email prinfo@hawaii.edu, 808 956-7539. More information:  www.pacrim.hawaii.edu.

April 6, 2013 - Sixth Annual DC Queer Studies Symposium

DC Queer Studies invites proposals for presentations at DEBILITATING QUEERNESS, the 6th Annual DC Queer Studies Symposium at the University of Maryland. The symposium will be a daylong series of conversations in critical queer and gender studies navigating a crip turn in engagements with disability theory. More information: http://www.lgbts.umd.edu | email: lgbts-dcqueers@umd.edu

In Memoriam

Stephen Edward Dias (April 26, 1952 - October 17, 2012)

Stephen Dias, co-founder and inspiration for the Disability Social History Project, passed away at home with his family by his side, on October 17, 2012 after a long struggle with medical issues. He was born in San Rafael, CA and lived the past 12 years in Humboldt County. Stephen was a disability activist who in the 1970s participated in the 504 sit-ins in San Francisco. As a librarian and activist, he had a passion for social movement history, including civil rights, labor and progressive politics. Stephen was a gentle soul with a strong sense of justice and a dark sense of humor. Stephen is survived by his loving wife, Patricia Chadwick, two daughters Hannah and Rosa, and siblings Maureen Orencik, Joan Donalen and Jeffrey Dias. He also leaves long-time devoted friends Denis Faria and Mark Jacobsen and his mother-in-law, Betty Chadwick

Interesting Stuff on the Web

The dwarves of Auschwitz

From the March 22, 2013 edition of The Guardian, a story of a family of dwarves snatched from the gas chamber by Josef Mengele.

The Olimpias Performance Research Projects

The Olimpias is an artists' collective and a performance research series. The artists explore art/life, cross-genre participatory practices, arts for social change and disability culture work.

Disability History Images on Flickr:

• Blind man hearing light ( Nationaal Archief)
• Piano for the bedridden ( Nationaal Archief)
• Images from William H. Johnson who was an African-American printmaker who experienced mental illness and was institutionalized for the last twentythree years of his life. (Smithsonian Institution)
• “Harri Bach, Bodedern” - a photograph by John Thomas, c1875, depicting a bearded man using a crutch or cane and a “peg-leg” prosthesis, posted next to a donkey cart in the street. (National Library of Wales)

H-Madness is intended as a resource for scholars interested in the history of madness, mental illness and their treatment (including the history of psychiatry, psychotherapy, and clinical psychology and social work).  

It's Our Story – a national initiative to make disability history public and accessible – over 1,000 video interviews from disability leaders across the country.

Polio Oral History Project - the American West Center at the University of Utah is developing an oral history record of Polio survivors and clinicians who treated Polio.

Disability History Week Campaign - from YO! Youth Organizing Disabled and Proud

Listen to Ever Lee Hairston's speech at the conference of the National Federation of the Blind of California in October 2009

My Whole Expanse I Cannot See… – the blog of Michael Phillips, a writer from Tampa, FL. who doesn’t walk nor breathe without the assistance of machines.

Books and Articles on Disability History

VanHole, Nick. “Shared Consciousness: A Social History of Tourette Syndrome and its Treatments.” University of Montana, 2012. (Download a PDF of the thesis) - This original history tracks how the shared public circumstances and treatment choices of people with tics and Tourette syndrome have changed over time and draws historical significance from the increasing practice of complementary and alternative therapies in recent years.

Marcus, Neil. Special Effects: Advances in Neurology
More than a document of the early days of the disability rights movement, Neil Marcus' collection Special Effects: Advances in Neurology is also a window into California zine culture of the 1980s. Art in revolution: social justice, the human growth movement, art in the everyday. From flourishing dystopia to speech storms, Neil documents living artfully in Berkeley, California, and in Disability Country. Publication Studio is proud to present this collection of reprinted documents with a new forward by Melanie Yergeau and an interview by Esther Ehrlich.

Haller, Beth. Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media. Advocado Press, 2010.

Video

Disabled Women: Visions and Voices from the 4th World Conference on Women

Disability Projects on the Web

Education for Disability and Gender Equity, a high school curriculum incorporating disability and gender issues into humanities and science

THE CHAIR: Holocaust Memorial to Disabled People