https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZF1DW4Oyc8 Not long ago, I was in Russia, to take part in an event at European University at Saint Petersburg, DIS.ART – disability, ethnography & the arts on October 10, 2018. The event featured four creative works by a cohort of medical ethnographers working on disability at European University in Saint Petersburg. The evening started … Continue reading Disability, Art & Ethnography in St Petersburg
Activism
Critical Design Lab blog launches!
This week marks the launch of a new blog from Aimi Hamraie's Critical Design Lab at Vanderbilt University, an intentional space for transformative research practice at the intersection of critical and interrogative design, intersectional feminist design theory, and crip technoscience. Over the past year, I've been a long-distance collaborator with the lab, working together to … Continue reading Critical Design Lab blog launches!
I WAS NEVER ALONE keeps on moving
I WAS NEVER ALONE (IWNA), a play script based on ethnographic fieldwork in Petrozavodsk, Russia with adults with disabilities, just keeps on moving - developing in new ways and finding collaborators and possibilities that, as a first-time documentary playwright, continue to astound and amaze me. The February 2016 staged reading of IWNA (dir. Joseph Megel) … Continue reading I WAS NEVER ALONE keeps on moving
Using Oral History to teach engaged Disability Studies at UNC-CH
I wrote recently about the launch of a collaborative website - a digital archive of oral histories of disability advocacy at UNC-CH, gathered by undergraduate students in two disability studies courses during the spring of 2014. I wanted to highlight the philosophy behind that project, so I've excerpted below the "Why Oral History" page from … Continue reading Using Oral History to teach engaged Disability Studies at UNC-CH
Website Launch: The ADA Legacy Project at UNC-CH
I have been lucky to work over the past semester with Dr. Lauren Fordyce and Dr. Neel Ahuja on an engaged research project. Undergraduate students in both Dr. Fordyce's and Dr. Ahuja's courses have worked to gather oral history interviews and relevant news and events on issues related to disability advocacy and awareness on the … Continue reading Website Launch: The ADA Legacy Project at UNC-CH
Teaching Engaged Anthropology: Disability History at UNC-CH
This spring, I am very excited to be working with medical anthropologist Dr. Lauren Fordyce, instructor of the Anthropology of Disability course at UNC-CH, and Dr. Neel Ahuja, instructor for the Disability Studies course housed in the English department, to launch an applied undergraduate course project that seeks to contribute to a sense of disability … Continue reading Teaching Engaged Anthropology: Disability History at UNC-CH
Play premiere in Petrozavodsk!
This month my friends and collaborators in Petrozavodsk present the city's first-ever social theater project. The play, which premieres on November 27th and 28th, is a collaborative work, coauthored by children with disabilities in the city and knit together by theater professionals Oleg Lipovetsky and Lidiya Pobedinskaya. The brain child of an open collaborative of … Continue reading Play premiere in Petrozavodsk!
Installation Launch: Cripping Cyberspace
I am absolutely thrilled to announce the launch of my new ethnographic installation in its digital incarnation this Friday, September 27th!! The project, Do You Like This Installation?, is one of four commissioned works featured in a contemporary online art exhibition titled Cripping Cyberspace. The broader exhibition is curated by uber-talented Amanda Cachia, presented by … Continue reading Installation Launch: Cripping Cyberspace
Fall teaching – the UNITAS curriculum for social justice
I'm very excited to be working this coming school year with Maggie Morgan-Smith and Anna Agbie-Davies to teach an amazing course that focuses on diversity, social justice, and why ethnography is an important methodology for engaged scholars. The UNITAS curriculum has been around as a "Living Learning Community" at UNC-CH for quite a few years … Continue reading Fall teaching – the UNITAS curriculum for social justice
New posts up on “Kto Kuda Kak?” Accessibility Blog
You might remember a meme that got passed around the internet last fall, showing pictures of utterly inaccessible ramps from around Russia. Russian accessibility activists like to call these the "galochki" or check-mark ramps: Is there a ramp? Yes! Does it work? Who cares?! It's there, put a check mark in the accessibility box! Last … Continue reading New posts up on “Kto Kuda Kak?” Accessibility Blog