Using arts-based research to understand the sociocultural facets of having invisible disabilities in a normative society

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-114
Author(s):  
Alexandra Allen
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Disability Studies ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
Arts Based Research ◽  
Critical Disability Studies ◽  
Disability Awareness ◽  
Disability Identity ◽  
Invisible Disabilities ◽  
Critical Autobiography

Abstract Disability studies is centred around the idea that disability is a social construction. Within the field of disability studies, however, many people with non-apparent disabilities are still underrepresented when it comes to the investigation of how social factors influence the formation of their own disability identity. Throughout this study, I use arts-based research to explore moments of critical disability awareness that highlight instances in which sociocultural factors have influenced my disability identity. By examining certain facets of critical disability studies that address issues of ableism, I am able to emphasize the ways in which critical autobiography can contribute to the discourse of having invisible disabilities within a normative society.

scholarly journals Un/covering: Making Disability Identity Legible

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Dawn Evans
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Illness ◽  
Disability Studies ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Identity Negotiation ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
Disability Identity ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
Disability Stigma ◽  
Invisible Disabilities

This article examines one aspect of disability identity among people with non-apparent or "invisible" disabilities: the decision to emphasize, remind others about, or openly acknowledge impairment in social settings. I call this process "un/covering," and situate this concept in the sociological and Disability Studies literature on disability stigma, passing, and covering. Drawing on interviews with people who have acquired a non-apparent impairment through chronic illness or injury, I argue that decisions to un/cover (after a disability disclosure has already been made) play a pivotal role for this group in developing a strong, positive disability identity and making that identity legible to others. Decisions to pass, cover, or un/cover are ongoing decisions that stitch together the fabric of each person's daily life experiences, thus serving as primary mechanisms for identity negotiation and management.

scholarly journals Tragic but brave or just crips with chips? Songs and their lyrics in the Disability Arts Movement in Britain

Popular Music ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
COLIN CAMERON
Keyword(s):  
Disability Studies ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Critical Disability Studies ◽  
Disability Culture ◽  
Disability Identity ◽  
Performance Poetry ◽  
The World ◽  
Everyday Experiences ◽  
A Site ◽  
Personal Tragedy

AbstractDisability culture is a site within which social and positional identities are struggled for and dominant discourses rejected; in which mainstream representations of people with impairments – as victims of personal tragedy – are held to the light and revealed as hegemonic constructions within a disabling society. Drawing upon styles that range from jazz, blues and folk to reggae, performance poetry and punk, disabled singers and bands in the Disability Arts Movement in Britain have been central to the development of an affirmative disability discourse rooted in ideas of pride, anger and strength. Examining lyrics by Johnny Crescendo, Ian Stanton and the Fugertivs – performers emerging as part of this movement in the 1980s and 1990s – this article considers the dark humour which runs through much of this work. It is suggested that these lyrics' observational reflections on everyday experiences of being oppressed as disabled people have been overlooked within critical disability studies to date, but are important in developing an understanding of positive disability identity as a tool available to disabled people in order to make sense of, and express themselves within, the world in which they find themselves.

Recent Work in Critical Disability Studies

Paragraph ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-244
Author(s):  
Hannah Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Disability Studies ◽  
Critical Disability Studies

scholarly journals Biological versus Feminists Perspectives on Girls' Underperformance in STEM Subjects in Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-18
Author(s):  
Raza Ullah ◽  
Hazir Ullah ◽  
Muhammad Bilal
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
Biological Factors ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Gender And Education ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Education Performance

This article outlines the biological essentialists’ versus feminists’ explanations of girls’ underperformance in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Historically, except in the contexts of some developed countries, boys dominated girls in STEM subjects. Biological essentialists associate girls’ underperformance in STEM with the innate differences between men and women, whereas feminists attribute it to social factors. The issue, however, is not so easily solved and there is an ongoing debate between biological essentialists and feminists. This article, thus, engages in a comparative analysis of the two approaches, their underlying principles and the empirical evidences they use to substantiate their stance. The analysis of both approaches enables the authors to better decipher the connection between gender and education performance. This article explains that social rather than biological factors influence girls’ performance in STEM subjects. The article concludes that girls’ underperformance in STEM subjects' results from sociocultural factors.

scholarly journals Historical Epistemology as Disability Studies Methodology: From the Models Framework to Foucault’s Archaeology of Cure

2015 ◽  
pp. 108-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aimi Hamraie
Keyword(s):  
Disability Studies ◽  
Biomedical Knowledge ◽  
Historical Epistemology ◽  
Critical Disability Studies ◽  
Medical Authority ◽  
Disability History ◽  
Models Of Disability ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Construction Of Disability

In this article, I argue for historical epistemology as a methodology for critical disability studies (DS) by examining Foucault’s archaeology of cure in History of Madness. Although the moral, medical, and social models of disability frame disability history as an advancement upon moral and medical authority and a replacement of it by sociopolitical knowledge, I argue that the more comprehensive frame in which these models circulate—the “models framework”—requires the more nuanced approach that historical epistemology offers. In particular, the models framework requires greater use of epistemology as an analytical tool for understanding the historical construction of disability. Thus, I turn to Foucault’s History of Madness in order to both excavate one particular archaeological strand in the text—the archaeology of cure—and to demonstrate how this narrative disrupts some of the key assumptions of the models framework, challenging DS to consider the epistemological force of non-medical fields of knowledge for framing disability and procedures for its cure and elimination. I conclude by arguing that DS must develop historical epistemological methodologies that are sensitive to the complex overlays of moral, medical, and social knowledge, as well as attend to the social construction of scientific and biomedical knowledge itself.

scholarly journals Toward a Crip-of-Color Critique: Thinking with Minich's 'Enabling Whom?'

Lateral ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jina B Kim
Keyword(s):  
Disability Studies ◽  
Critical Disability Studies ◽  
Academic Labor

Response to Julie Avril Minich, "Enabling Whom? Critical Disability Studies Now," published in Lateral 5.1. Kim elaborates upon a crip-of-color critique, which has possibilities to both criticize structures that inherently devalue humans and to take action to work toward justice. Kim’s final call is to identify and act against the inequalities and harm of academic labor, urging readers to take seriously a “politics of refusal” that might help academics of color survive through alternative collectivities.

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