Author: Caroline Lieffers

New DHA Partnership: University of Illinois Press Disability Histories Prize

Caroline Lieffers on

From the University of Illinois Press:

The University of Illinois Press is pleased to announce a new prize in partnership with the Disability Histories series and the Disability History Association. The Outstanding Dissertation in Disability History prize will be awarded annually, beginning in 2023, to recognize and reward exceptional work in disability history done by early-career scholars.

The winner will receive $1000 and an advance contract with the University of Illinois Press to publish their revised manuscript in the Disability Histories series. The prize award is contingent upon the author’s acceptance of the contract with the University of Illinois Press.

The prize is open to any dissertation written in English and defended within the three years preceding the award’s submission deadline. For the 2023 prize, we will consider dissertations defended between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2022. Revised dissertations are welcomed and encouraged. Eligible dissertations may be submitted more than once for this prize.

To apply, please send a screen-readable PDF of your dissertation (or revised dissertation), CV, and cover letter with contact information to Alison Syring (asyring2@illinois.edu) with the subject line “Outstanding Dissertation in Disability History” by May 30, 2023. Receipt of the application will be acknowledged, and the winner will be announced by September 30, 2023.

Upcoming Workshop: Requesting and Writing Effective Letters of Recommendation

Caroline Lieffers on
Image Description: The poster contains a white background with two cut spheres composed of graded purple lines in the background. One sphere is in the top right corner and the other, larger sphere is in the centre to the left, with three purple lines in descending order of length on top of it. In the foreground, at the top, there is black text reading “The Disability History Association: Requesting and Writing Letters of Recommendation.” In the bottom right quadrant, there is text reading “Interactive Workshop with Susan Burch and Kim E. Nielsen, Tuesday, February 21, 2023, 2-5pm EST. For more details visit www.dishist.org.” At the bottom left is a QR code and the bottom right has the logos for Body Language Productions and White Coat Captioning.

Tuesday, February 21, 2023, 4:00-5:00 PM EST

In this interactive workshop, Susan Burch and Kim E. Nielsen will offer guidance on requesting and writing letters of recommendation. The workshop will address the “why” and “how” of content, format, and tone.
Issues spotlighted in this session include common and complicated questions regarding seeking and composing letters of recommendation: 

  • Context
  • Disclosure
  • Pronouns
  • Audience
  • Tips for tailoring letters.

There will be sample materials, checklists, and intentional time for discussion. 

Intended Audience: Graduate students, professional academic historians, colleagues working in history-related fields and institutions. 

Please register by clicking this link. Captioning and ASL will be provided.

Podcast Episode 39 – Black Disability Politics

Caroline Lieffers on

Guest host Emma Wathen interviews Sami Schalk about her new book, Black Disability Politics.

Episode Image: Cover of Black Disability Politics by Sami Schalk. The words are a faint yellow color set against a black background, with red horizontal bars above and below the title “Black Disability Politics.”

Download mp3 file here.
Download pdf transcript here.

About Our Guest

Dr. Sami Schalk (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Schalk’s interdisciplinary research focuses broadly on disability, race, and gender in contemporary American literature and culture. She has published on literature, film, and material culture in a variety of peer-reviewed humanities journals. Dr. Schalk’s first book Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction  (Duke University Press 2018) argues that Black women writers of speculative fiction reimagine the possibilities and limits of bodyminds, changing the way we read and interpret categories like (dis)ability, race, gender and sexuality within the context of these non-realist texts. Her second book Black Disability Politics (Duke UP 2022) explores how Black cultural workers have engaged disability as a social and political issue differently than the mainstream, white-dominated disability rights movement. In doing so, Dr. Schalk argues that because Black disability politics take on different qualities, the work has been overlooked or misrecognized within disability studies and Black studies alike. Dr. Schalk also writes for mainstream outlets, serves as a board member for Freedom Inc., and once twerked with Lizzo. You can follow Dr. Schalk on Twitter.

Podcast Episode 38 – Queer Crip Histories of White Rural American Life

Caroline Lieffers on

Ryan Lee Cartwright discusses their new book, Peculiar Places: A Queer Crip History of White Rural Nonconformity.

Episode Image: Cover of Peculiar Places by Ryan Lee Cartwright. The cover is a pastiche of craft-like images set against a beige backdrop. The images include a rough wooden cabin, a ladder, lace doilies, and a reddish mountaintop.

Download mp3 file here.
Download pdf transcript here.

About Our Guest

Ryan Lee Cartwright is an Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at UC Davis. Their research focuses on disability, gender, and sexuality on the social and spatial margins. Cartwright’s first book, Peculiar Places: A Queer Crip History of White Rural Nonconformity (University of Chicago Press, September 2021), maps racialized queer and disability histories of white social nonconformity across the rural US, from the 1910s to the 1990s. They are at work on a second book examining how, in the early-to-mid twentieth century US, chronic illness came to be understood as a gendered, racialized “social burden.” Cartwright teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on a wide range of topics, including disability studies, queer and trans history, the 1990s, research methodologies, social welfare, and landscapes and places. Cartwright is affiliated with the graduate groups in Cultural Studies and Performance Studies, as well as the designated emphasis in Feminist Theory and Research. They are also the coordinator of the Disability and Social In/Justice DHI research cluster. 

Podcast Episode 37 – Personal Assistance Services: Past, Present, and Future

Caroline Lieffers on

Lisa Iezzoni discusses her new book, Making Their Days Happen: Paid Personal Assistance Services Supporting People with Disability Living in Their Homes and Communities

Episode Image: Cover of Making Their Days Happen, by Lisa I. Iezzoni. The cover features a painting of a wide yellow bungalow, with ramps to the front door and side deck. The house has a vast front law and neat hedges and flowerbeds, and it is set amid tall green trees.

Download mp3 here.
Download pdf transcript here.

About Our Guest

Lisa I. Iezzoni, MD, MSc is Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and based at the Health Policy Research Center, Mongan Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Iezzoni has conducted numerous studies examining the health care experiences of persons with disability. Her book Making Their Days Happen: Paid Personal Assistance Services Supporting People with Disability Living in Their Homes and Communities was just published. During the 2022-2023 academic year, she is the Sally Starling Seaver Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Dr. Iezzoni is a member of the National Academy of Medicine in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.