Hi Richard and All,
While Gallaudet University does not have a formal DS
programme, we certainly do teach disability courses and
there are several people from a variety of departments
here at Gallaudet that do disability research. Sharon
Barnartt in the Sociology department has written on the
disability movement in "Disability Protests:
Contentious Politics 1970-1999. From the historical
perspective we have Stan Schuchman, Donna Ryan and
Susan Burch who have all published on disability. There
are folks in the English department who have also
written about disability in Literature and I am sure I
am leaving lots of people out here who are doing
exciting work. It weas very nice to meet fellow
researchers who are working in disability at the
International level at 2 recent conferences, Council of
Europeaninsts in Chicago, and the International Studies
Association in Montreal.
In the Government Department there are 3 people,
political scientists all, are doing research on
Disability Organisations in the EU. We have presented
our preliminary research findings at several
conferences and are always delighted to see other
panels on disability working their way into the
mainstream of political science. (several of the papers
we have presented can be found on line Olson, Penna,
and Veith)
When we are doing our reserach, we do try to make
contacts with disability researchers and DS programmes
so we can try to make and maintain these connections.
There are those of us who are pushing major political
science organisations such as the American Political
Science Association (APSA), to take disability into
account when establishing scholarships for minorities
and under-represented populations in the discipline as
well as accepting that disability has a place in the
Political Science discourse. No one would deny that
human rights/ civil rights have a place in political
science so the powers that be need to know that
disability rights are HUMAN RIGHTS.
I wrote a rather long letter to APSA, protesting my
unequal access when I pay equal membership fees. We all
have to push a bit to expand the bondaries of DS.
Well thats my bit.
Mairin
On Fri, 14 May 2004 08:15:05 -0500, Richard Meldrum
wrote:
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I found m99m's response here interesting and I'd like
> to add my 2 bits to it.
> As a caveat, I am a doctoral student in the
> disability studies program at
> the University of Illinois at Chicago. Given my
> location, I have a strong
> desire for DS to survive as an academic and
> interdisciplinary field.
>
> One last caveat: To make things easier for me, and
> hopefully for the reader, I
> will embed my responses in the body of m99m's text.
>
> >> Continuation even of the present modest number of
DS
> courses depends on
> >> various factors, prominent among which are:
> >>
> >> (1) a continuing (and if possible, rising) demand
> for the courses, from
> >> fee-paying or funded customers with sufficient
> proximity;
>
> Additionally, I believe these courses need to begin in
> other academic
> departments. My hunch is that there are a number of
> people who do research
> and teach courses involving disability. Although,
> these folks may not
> identify themselves as scholars of disability. As a
> burgeoning field, DS
> scholars need to seek out these connections to create
> networks that may lead
> to furture DS programs.
>
> >> (2) the development and maintenance of a credible
> academic image for DS,
> >> measurable perhaps in terms of serious research
> output in quality refereed
> >> journals, with progress in quantity of worthwhile
> citation (i.e. citation
> >> not only by mutual stroking, nor for purposes of
> refutation or ridicule,
> >> but by authors in adjacent or distant fields,
> writing also in quality
> >> journals, who are citing what they consider to be
> authoritative research);
>
> hear, hear.
>
> >> (3) some evidence that people with postgraduate
> degrees in DS have career
> >> possibilities, i.e. the qualifications command
> respect from a range of
> >> potential employers (apart from just going on to
> teach more DS), or open
> >> up viable routes to self-employment.
>
> As I mentioned above, I am currently a doctoral
student
> so this issue is VERY
> important to me and my classmates. Given that
academic
> programs in DS are
> scarce at the present time, students need to be
mindful
> that they may not
> initially find employment in DS. Rather, they may
need
> to seek out the
> adjacent fields that mesh well with their background.
> In my humble opinion,
> the students who have the best chance of being
> immediately successful in this
> task will be those with well established ties to a
> field through their
> master's program. If I were a betting man, and
> remember I'm a grad student so
> I'm a poor man with small wagers, I would bet that the
> students who come to DS
> at UIC with ties in the rehab fields will be the most
> immediately successful
> in forging a DS career and creating DS courses.
Before
> the boos and hisses
> pour out, I make this statement based entirely on the
> academic market. Rehab
> programs are hiring and English departments are not,
> plain and simple.
>
>
> >> In the UK, departments of Chemistry, History,
> Philosophy, and
> >> other 'respectable' fields of study are in fact
> being closed left and
> >> right, as well as 'Cultural Studies', East Asian
> Studies, etc, under
> >> various pretexts, even though tertiary education is
> expanding. Meanwhile,
> >> participants in this list may be aware of the
recent
> cries of anguish on
> >> the DS-Hum list, suggesting some political
> difficulties with the flagship
> >> Disability Studies at UIC (Illinois at Chicago) and
> an (unconfirmed)
> >> attempted take-over bid by insurgents from the
> Rehabista Front.
>
> If I may paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of DS's
> death at UIC have been
> greatly exaggerated. m99m is wise to note that the
> recent information about
> the program is largely unconfirmed. While the cries
of
> anguish have certainly
> found their ways to numerous listservs, scant factual
> information has made the
> same journey. Yesterday, the program officially named
> Carol Gill as its
> director of graduate studies after David Mitchell's
> 3-year term expired.
> Carol certainly doesn't need me to do her PR work, but
> I'm confident that the
> DS program will continue to prosper under her
guidance.
>
>
> >> When it's sexy, people try to climb aboard. When it
> starts greying, and
> >> airing its views on life, or becomes merely a
> 'virtual' experience down a
> >> wire, the managerial strategists and beancounters
> move in; the punters
> >> look for something younger and prettier. That's yer
> academic whorehouse.
>
> well put. Lets hope the DS field ages more like Bette
> Davis than Keith
> Richards.
>
> Best,
>
> Richard
>
> Richard Meldrum, LCSW
> Ph.D. student in Disability Studies
> Graduate Research Assistant with Advocacy and
> Empowerment
> For Minorities with Disabilities
> Department of Disability and Human Development
> College of Applied Health Sciences
> 1640 West Roosevelt Road
> Chicago, IL 60608-6904
> [log in to unmask]
>
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Instructor
Gallaudet University
Department of Government and History HMB S235C
800 Florida Ave. N.E.
Washington, DC 20002-3695
202-651-5923
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