Is it time to think about an international conference of people in
disability studies, those with disabilities and without, and of those
engaged in disability activism, with an inevitable overlap among the three
constituencies? (There are other stakeholders one might think of) Aim: to
advance the interests and needs of people with disabilities in combining
the strengths of the three groups.
I can visualise an agenda guaranteed to produce a lively few days:
*Who sets the disability/advocacy agenda?
*Who should set the disability/advocacy agenda?
*What is on it and what should be on the agenda?
*What tensions play a role among the three groups?
*Exploration of various approaches to disability.
*The value and pitfalls of different approaches to/theories of disability &
tensions between them.
*Teasing out of the causes and methods that different approaches identify.
*If we are all saying we are acting in the interest of furthering the
causes(s) of people with disabilities, how can we productively use and
organise our diverse approaches and theories and minimise any potential
negative outcomes to people with disabilities.
*How to keep directly in touch with disability issues on the ground and
how to use academic work in support of grassroots change?
Just imagine....... Would you want to be there?
Erik Leipoldt
At 09:01 26/06/99 +0530, you wrote:
>I agree. It is something like when you are told that ,' oh we do understand
>that you have a problem but believe you me everyone is disabled in some
>way or the other'
>further it is pointed out that there are so many other categories who are
>as marginalised as PWD"s. In a country like many this is one reason why
>even after 52 years of independence the legislation, which is also meaning
>less came about in 1996. Like Mairian I too get the feeling of not finding
>any space for the academic in me as the activism in my country of which I
>am a part is too young to have space for academics. These are moments when
>I feel that the situation is helpless, but one has to carry on.
>Anita
>
>----------
>| From: Mairian Corker <[log in to unmask]>
>| To: [log in to unmask]
>| Subject: Re: in or out of the ivory tower?
>| Date: Friday, June 25, 1999 5:23 PM
>|
>| David wrote:
>|
>| > There is scholarship and then there is funded publication (most of
>| >which is very poor scholarship). I am surprised that Mairian would ask
>the
>| >question because it is inherent in society (am I a Marxian, you bet)
>that
>| >people who speak truth to power do not receive funding. It has taken me
>37
>| >years, but for the last two years I have not had to rely upon the
>| >University for funding although the U of Hawai`i has provided some
>things
>| >(including travel funds) for me. It is a liberating experience, but to
>| >wait 35 years is too long.
>|
>| I asked the question, David, because you and others had to wait that long
>| and because I have only seen individual 'campaigns' to do something about
>| it. My second email may clarify things a bit. Where is the disability
>| movement in supporting those of us in academia? I sometimes ask these
>| questions also because part of my oppression is that a lot of the
>| experiences of disabled academics pass around in informal conversation
>that
>| I have no access to, and those that are published represent the views of
>| those who have already 'made it'. And there are a lot of non-disabled
>| academics who, when I try to raise these things, retort 'It's the same
>for
>| me!' I'm asking 'Is it?' I get burnt out, stressed and depressed too
>often
>| because when I'm trying to achieve change, I turn round and there's
>no-one
>| there! And please don't tell me that's life!
>|
>| Cheers
>|
>| Mairian
>|
>| Mairian Corker
>| Senior Research Fellow in Deaf and Disability Studies
>| Department of Education Studies
>| University of Central Lancashire
>| Preston PR1 2HE
>|
>| Address for correspondence:
>| 111 Balfour Road
>| Highbury
>| London N5 2HE
>| U.K.
>|
>| Minicom/TTY +44 [0]171 359 8085
>| Fax +44 [0]870 0553967
>| Typetalk (voice) +44 [0]800 515152 (and ask for minicom/TTY number)
>|
>| *********
>|
>| "To understand what I am doing, you need a third eye"
>|
>| *********
>|
>|
>
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