Category: Graduate Awards

Disability History Association Graduate Travel Grant

As part of our commitment to promoting the work of disability historians at all career stages, the Disability History Association (DHA) is proud to invite graduate students to apply for our semi-annual conference travel award. The award is meant to support travel to professional academic conferences and is not restricted by geographic location. The fellowship committee will award up to two graduate student applicants $250 (US) each to support attendance at conferences between September 2018 and August 2019. The Association will cover expenses in currencies other than U.S. dollars if necessary.

To apply for this scholarship, applicants should provide a one-page (roughly 250-word) letter outlining when, where, and what kind of conference they attended or plan to attend. Applicants should clearly explain their reason for wanting to attend the conference and what benefits they received or anticipate receiving from the experience, especially benefits relating to their work in disability history. For example, a candidate may have been accepted to present a paper on a disability history project or may want to interview for jobs at the conference; another may want to do both or may want to learn more about subjects presented that relate to their own work in disability history. Please explain with as much detail and clarity as possible how the conference attendance intersects with the broad field of disability history.

This year’s award covers the period from September 1, 2018 to August 31, 2019. The first deadline for applications is October 20, 2018, which covers conference attendance between September 1, 2018 and February 28, 2019. A second deadline for applications is March 1, 2019, which covers conference attendance between March 1, 2019 and August 31, 2019.

Applicants must be members of the DHA in order to receive this scholarship. To learn more about membership, please visit dishist.org/?page_id=25

Awardees will be announced on the H-Dis listserv. In accepting the scholarship, winners commit to writing a brief reflection (500-750 words) about the conference that will be shared with our membership.

Please send applications to Professor Susan Burch: sburch@middlebury.edu.

The Disability History Association is delighted to announce that Laura Micheletti Puaca has been selected for the Publication Award for Best Article / Book Chapter.

From Michael Rembis, who has chaired the committee since it was created in 2011: “Each year, the committee receives a number of excellent submissions to the DHA publication award, and each year the committee must make difficult decisions about which submissions represent the best scholarship in disability history. This year was no exception. In fact, any of the three finalists could have occupied the top spot. The committee carefully contemplated each of the three finalists down to the last minute. In the end, the final decision was made by the narrowest of margins. It is exciting to see so much innovative work being done in disability history. We hope that you will take the time to enjoy this well-deserved recognition, and we look forward to your future work. Congratulations!”

WINNER

Laura Micheletti Puaca, “The Largest Occupational Group of All the Disabled: Homemakers with Disabilities and Vocational Rehabilitation in Postwar America,” in Michael Rembis, ed. Disabling Domesticity (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 73-102.

Comments from our committee:

“[Puaca] analyzes the importance of gender and broader conceptualizations of work.  If much of the definition of disability is tied to gainful employment, this piece really broadens both the definition of disability and that of work itself.”

“Puaca’s article is well-researched and well-written. She brilliantly weaves together economic, gender, disability, and policy histories providing new and important insights into the dominant postwar and social movements narratives.”

“This well-written article is an exploration of a little-known yet important chapter of U.S. Disability History: vocational rehabilitation programs for homemakers in postwar America. Puaca brilliantly shows the sometimes surprising ways in which these programs contributed to shaping the nascent disability rights and women’s rights movements.”

 

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Rabia Belt, “Ballots for Bullets?: Disabled Veterans and the Right to Vote,” Stanford Law Review 69 (February 2017): 435-490.

Comments from our committee:

““Ballots for Bullets?” skillfully examines why and how Civil War veterans housed in charitable institutions were systematically disenfranchised. Through a careful reading of a wealth of court cases, state hearings, and newspaper articles, Belt focuses on veterans who experienced mental trauma to challenge the dominant narrative of disabled veterans holding a privileged place among people with disabilities. The result is a major contribution to both Disability Studies and U.S. History.”

 

Sarah Handley-Cousins, “‘Wrestling at the Gates of Death’: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and Nonvisible Disability in the Post-Civil War North,” The Journal of the Civil War Era 6 (June 2016): 220-242.

Comments from our committee:

“A haunting and rigorous examination of the oft-ignored dynamics of non-visible disability in Civil War America. Through the case study of a single Union solider Handley-Cousins traces the contentious process, which sought to demarcate disability from ability via the rubrics of gender, racial identity and the state. Evincing deep archival research with theoretical acumen and a lively and engaging writing style this paper effectively and eloquently blurs the borders of disability.”

Congratulations to all three authors, whose work rose to the top of a very competitive field! The DHA award committee will be evaluating both the Best Book and the Best Article/Book Chapter in 2018.