The Board of The Disability History Association (DHA) is proud to release its 2023 Annual Report. You can access the report in its entirely here: PDF here and the Word Doc here. See our past president’s message below.
Past President’s Message
In the spring of 2022, the Board of Directors started two lists. The first was devoted to naming the people whose creativity and generosity, particularly since 2020, had allowed the DHA to become. The second became a repository of hope, a space to hold the futures we imagined for the DHA. Both documents continue to reside in the DHA’s informal archive.
As mundane tools for remembering, these lists epitomize the ordinary and the uneventful in the life of our organization. But they also represent the work of governance in which the Board of Directors quietly engages: determining a present course of action that mediates between the past and the present, between what the DHA has been and what it might yet become.
This work seems particularly apt now, as 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the DHA’s inaugural board meeting. There is so much to celebrate. The pages that follow — showcasing the extraordinary creativity of our members, interns, committees, and directors — are evidence of that abundance. The DHA, thanks to all of us, is strong.
– Katheen Brian, former Disability History Association President
Nora O’Neill, an MD/PhD student at Yale University, discusses her research on feminist disability activism in 1980s/1990s Boston.
Episode Image: A close-up photograph of a white t-shirt with a pink logo. In the center is the female sex symbol, a cross topped by a circle, which makes up the wheel of the wheelchair symbol that sits on top. The caption reads “Disabled Female and Proud.” This was a t-shirt found in the PWD’s archives and was likely worn by its members.
Nora O’Neill is an MD/PhD student at Yale University in the History of Science and Medicine Program. Prior to Yale she received her undergraduate degree in the History of Science at Harvard and completed an honors thesis on activism by women with disabilities in 1980s Boston, the project she discusses in this episode. Nora’s current research blends historical and sociological methods and explores the impact of patient activism on medical education in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She hopes to combine clinical care with teaching and research in the history of medicine in her future career as a physician-historian.
The Disability History Association (DHA) promotes the relevance of disability history and facilitates research, publication, conference travel, and public history initiatives related to disability history.
The Disability History Association annually confers two publication awards: the Outstanding Book Award and the Outstanding Article/Book Chapter Award. Information about how to apply for each award, as well as past winners, can be found below.
Outstanding Book Award
As part of the Association’s 2024 Award Series, the DHA Award Committee invites entries for its thirteenth annual Outstanding Book Award. The amount of the award is $300. The winning book, as well as the book receiving the honorable mention, will be announced in September 2024.
Eligibility: Committee members welcome monographs and edited collections, provided the book is new, original scholarship and published in English. The award is open to authors writing across all geographic areas and time periods whose book was first published between January 1 and December 31, 2023. Members of the DHA Board of Directors are not eligible to apply.
Submission Procedure: In order to be considered, please send the following to the DHA Director of Awards, Dr. Jenifer Barclay (barclay7@buffalo.edu) and Book Award Chair Dr. Wayne Tan (tan@hope.edu) by May 1, 2024:
1. a brief cover letter that includes a full bibliographic citation for the book; and
2. an electronic copy of the book in text-based .pdf or .doc file format compatible with screen reading software for the review committee.
The members of the Award Committee understand that copyright rules apply and will use the electronic copy for the sole purpose of selecting a winner. Books that are not provided in accessible electronic formats for screen reading software in a timely manner will not be considered for the prize.
Applicants will also be required to send six print copies of the book to the members of the Book Award Committee. After you submit your cover letter and electronic copy of the book, the Book Award Co-Chairs will be in contact with you to arrange for the distribution of the hard copies. If you are concerned that you will not be able to provide hard copies of the book, please let the Book Award Co-Chairs know. Please direct any questions to the DHA Director of Awards (Jenifer Barclay, barclay7@buffalo.edu) or Book Award Chair (Wayne Tan, tan@hope.edu ).
Outstanding Article or Book Chapter Award
As part of the Association’s 2024 Award Series, the DHA is pleased to invite entries for its thirteenth annual Outstanding Article or Book Chapter Award competition. The winning article or book chapter, as well the article or book chapter receiving honorable mention, will be announced in September 2024.
Eligibility: The award committee welcomes entries that feature new and original history of disability scholarship. To be considered, submissions must have significant historical content.
This $200 award is open to authors writing across all geographic areas and time periods. The publication must be in English, with first publication taking place between January 1 and December 31, 2023. We are conscious that some journals publish an electronic advance copy of articles that can appear a considerable time before the print copy is published; we also recognize that some journals are running behind schedule so that, for example, an article published in October 2023 might actually appear in a 2022 edition. We will endeavor to be sympathetic in cases of “behind schedule” publication. If you feel that your proposed submission should be considered but might be at risk of disqualification, please email Jenifer Barclay (barclay7@buffalo.edu) for further information.
Submission Procedure: Please send one electronic (.pdf or .doc) copy of the article or book chapter to Dr. Jenifer Barclay (barclay7@buffalo.edu) no later than May 15, 2024. In your email, please include the full bibliographic citation of your submission in the Chicago Manual of Style format.
In the interest of modeling best practice in the field of disability history, we require that the electronic file be compatible with screen reading software (see this site, for example, for a guide). We understand that copyright rules apply, and we will only use the electronic copy for the purposes of the DHA Outstanding Publication Award. Manuscripts not provided in accessible electronic formats for screen reading software in a timely manner cannot be considered for the prize.
Members of the DHA Board are not eligible for either of these awards.
Recent Award Winners
2023 Outstanding Book Award
Winner
Wei Yu Wayne Tan, Blind in Early Modern Japan: Disability, Medicine, and Identity (University of Michigan Press, 2022).
The award committee described Blind in Early Modern Japan as a “carefully constructed work [that] fills in vital historical gaps: early modern era, Japan, and blind history.” It is “an impressive piece of scholarship” that “reveals new understandings of the relationships between medicine/systems of medicine and being blind, as well as how (a non-Western) religion contributed to the meaning and experience of being blind.” Tan “has done a superb job of locating and interpreting from a disability history perspective the experiences of blind people,” showing “how blind people formed an identifiable group of professionals from musicians, acupuncturists, and scholars, among other occupations, with elite males forming their own guild.” The author “paid thoughtful attention to gender and gender hierarchies, demonstrated significant research skills (including multilingual translation and interpretation), and worked diligently to center disabled people as active agents in this account. Through innovative approaches to historical sources and interpretations, Tan traces a different medical system—Sino-Japanese—than the Western biomedical model that dominates most disability history works. In so doing, he reveals new understandings of the relationships between medicine/systems of medicine and being blind, as well as how (a non-Western) religion contributed to the meaning and experience of being blind.”
Honorable Mention
Alexandre Sumpf, The Broken Years: Russia’s Disabled War Veterans, 1904-1921 (Cambridge University Press, 2022)
According to the selection committee’s comments, The Broken Years is “a superbly researched study of disabled veterans in Russia that addresses a significant omission in the historical record and insists on the important role disabled veterans have played in Russia’s past.” Characterized by “extensive, wide-ranging, and multilingual archival work,” the book importantly draws upon “first-person accounts from disabled soldiers’ points of view.” Sumpf is “expansive yet meticulous in his argument,” challenging readers “to consider wars as interlocking rather than discrete and individual: this is particularly useful for disability historians across many regions and eras.”
2023 Outstanding Article/Book Chapter Award
Winner
Jonathyne Briggs, “From Collaboration to Resistance: The Family Dynamic in Autism Literature in Contemporary France,” Contemporary European History 32, no. 2 (2023): 254-69.
From the Committee:
Briggs’ compelling work explores the transitory nature of autism literature in France during the second half of the twentieth century, shifting from primarily medical narratives to stories written by parents and then autistic people themselves. Challeng[ing] predominantly medical narratives and [chart[ing] disability rights discourse, Briggs successfully plac[es] the story of autism literature within the longer history of 20th-century psychiatry.
Honorable Mention:
Michael Rembis, “‘We Had Very Good Times Together’: A Mad People’s History of Life on Asylum Wards in the Early-Twentieth Century United States”
From the Committee:
Rembis uses writing from former asylum inmates – “mad writers” – to investigate the conditions in wards between 1890 and 1950 and explore “inmate” culture that helped many survive institutional confinement and foster connections for 20th-century civil rights movements. He deftly explores the communities forged within wards among inmates – including support groups such as the Suicide Club – using serious and cogent analysis to chart the difficult circumstances of confinement in such wards that prefaced efforts at solidarity. Rembis does “a deeply rigorous and moving job working with patient testimony.”
The Disability History Association is looking for a Director of Records (Secretary)!
Would you like to be involved in supporting and promoting disability history? The Disability History Association’s Board of Directors is seeking applications for a new Director of Records.
The responsibilities of the Director of Records include:
keeping minutes of the Board’s monthly meetings;
managing records and policy documents;
participating in other Board activities as needed;
assisting the Treasurer and President with financial oversight; and
attending monthly Board meetings.
Directors also participate in other projects as required, as well as the general governance of the organization.
The time commitment is approximately 2-5 hours per week, though this may vary. Board members serve a three year term. This is an unpaid, volunteer position.
All Directors must agree to the DHA conflict of interest policy and sign a form. Sitting Directors are ineligible for DHA- and DHA-sponsored awards. You can read our policy in full here.
The DHA commits to anti-oppressive practices. Scholars who are from marginalized and equity-seeking communities are particularly encouraged to apply, as are community-based scholars. The board also welcomes non-historians and non-academics who engage with disability history in their work. Candidates will be contacted by the DHA President for further conversation, and final nominees will be elected by the Board of Directors.
To apply, please contact disability.history@gmail.com with a resume/CV or bio and a brief letter (maximum 1 page) describing your interest by March 24, 2024.
Please feel free to email disability.history@gmail.com if you have any questions or concerns.
The Disability History Association is looking for a Treasurer!
Would you like to be involved in supporting and promoting disability history? The Disability History Association’s Board of Directors is seeking applications for a Treasurer.
The responsibilities of the Treasurer include:
initiating, overseeing, and recording business transactions;
monthly oversight of operating cash flow;
preparing annual budgets and quarterly and annual financial reports,
filing taxes;maintaining the DHA’s status as a tax-exempt non-profit corporation; and
attending monthly Board meetings
Directors also participate in other projects as required, as well as the general governance of the organization.
The time commitment is approximately one hour per week, though this may vary. Board members serve a three year term. This is an unpaid, volunteer position.
All Directors must agree to the DHA conflict of interest policy and sign a form. Sitting Directors are ineligible for DHA- and DHA-sponsored awards. You can read our policy in full here.
The DHA commits to anti-oppressive practices. Scholars who are from marginalized and equity-seeking communities are particularly encouraged to apply, as are community-based scholars. The board also welcomes non-historians and non-academics who engage with disability history in their work. Candidates will be contacted by the DHA President for further conversation, and final nominees will be elected by the Board of Directors.
To apply, please contact disability.history@gmail.com with a resume/CV or bio and a brief letter (maximum 1 page) describing your interest.
Please feel free to email disability.history@gmail.com if you have any questions or concerns.
The Disability History Association is looking for a Director of Student Affairs!
Would you like to be involved in supporting and promoting disability history? The Disability History Association’s Board of Directors is seeking applications for a Director of Student Affairs.
The responsibilities of the Director of Student Affairs include:
organizing the Disability History Graduate Writing Workshop;
facilitating monthly workshop sessions of the Disability History Graduate Writing Workshop;
participating in the DHA committee to select recipients of our Conference Award; and
attending monthly Board meetings.
Directors also participate in other projects as required, as well as the general governance of the organization.
The time commitment is approximately 2-5 hours per week, though this may vary. Board members serve a two year term. This is an unpaid, volunteer position.
All Directors must agree to the DHA conflict of interest policy and sign a form. Sitting Directors are ineligible for DHA- and DHA-sponsored awards. You can read our policy in full here.
The DHA commits to anti-oppressive practices. Scholars who are from marginalized and equity-seeking communities are particularly encouraged to apply, as are community-based scholars. The board also welcomes non-historians and non-academics who engage with disability history in their work. Candidates will be contacted by the DHA President for further conversation, and final nominees will be elected by the Board of Directors.
To apply, please contact disability.history@gmail.com with a resume/CV or bio and a brief letter (maximum 1 page) describing your interest.
Please feel free to email disability.history@gmail.com if you have any questions or concerns.
Doug Crandell discusses his latest book, Twenty-Two Cents an Hour: Disability Rights and the Fight to End Subminimum Wages.
Episode Image: Cover of Twenty-Two Centers an Hour: Disability Rights and the Fight to End Subminimum Wages by Doug Crandell. The cover is white with twenty-two pennies laid out in four columns. The title is printed among the rows of pennies.
Doug has worked for decades in employment and disability supports. He’s an advocate for a sibling with disabilities. In Twenty-Two Cents an Hour, he focuses on how the Disability Industrial Complex is often impenetrable, mired in deficit-thinking, and controlled by the lobbying of trade groups that do little for people with disabilities. Doug has published eight books with publishers including Penguin-Random House, Chicago Review Press, Virgin Books, and Cornell University Press. His essays on labor, mental health, and disability appear regularly in the SUN magazine. He directs the training and technical assistance center known as www.advancingemployment.com. Additional information is available at: www.dougcrandell.com and www.abolish14c.com.
