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

I WAS NEVER ALONE workshop and staged reading

This week takes me back to North Carolina to work on logistics leading up to a planned workshop and staged reading that will take place at UNC-Chapel Hill Performance Studies during the first week of February 2016. The workshop will be the second process presentation for I WAS NEVER ALONE, a documentary play script and … Continue reading I WAS NEVER ALONE workshop and staged reading

California and other changes

I'm thrilled to announce that have accepted an appointment as the 2015-2016 Postdoctoral Fellow in Ethnographic Design at the Studio for Ethnographic Design at the University of California San Diego. This is an exciting position that includes a departmental home in the UCSD Department of Communication, and a key role in planning and executing upcoming … Continue reading California and other changes

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

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

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