PDF version Abstract This paper emphasizes the importance of mêtis—adaptable and responsive rhetorical action—in achieving responsible, sustainable, and access-based community action for social justice. It specifically connects this concept to disability and access, arguing that centering disability and the embodied material experiences of disabled people are central to sustainable, effective, and ethical civic engagement practices… Continue reading Engaging Mêtis as a Site of Disability Activist and Leadership Possibilities

PDF version Abstract Drawing on their embodied experiences as queer disabled graduate students directing a student-founded, student-led community literacy program, this article foregrounds queercrip embodied experiences to reinterpret normative notions of failure in community literacy programs. Using our own experiences as queer disabled graduate students directing the community literacy program, queer and disability theory, and… Continue reading An Unglamorous Queercrip Account of Failure in the Writing Lincoln Initiative

This essay was composed on the historic territories of the Akokisa/Orcoquisa and Karankawa peoples. In 2016, a Bloomberg poll revealed that what bothered voters most about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump was his mocking of disabled journalist Serge Kovaleski during a campaign rally in South Carolina. The previous November, Trump had ridiculed Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis,… Continue reading #CripTheVote: Disability Activism, Social Media, and the Campaign for Communal Visibility

This essay examines the issue of learning disabilities among the incarcerated population. Studies show that approximately eleven percent of U.S. prison inmates self-report a learning disability, a rate nearly four times greater than that of the general U.S. population. The paper 1) addresses the obstacles in meeting this population’s needs, and 2) argues for the… Continue reading Learning Disabilities Among the Incarcerated by Terra White

The 46-line poem “Moon” grew out of my work at the Hampden County Correctional Facility in Ludlow, Massachusetts where I have been facilitating writing workshops with incarcerated women for the past five years. We employ the Amherst Writers & Artists method for writing with underserved populations. Link to PDF

While service learning can be compatible with feminist objectives, if the service does not contribute to structural change or help students understand their role in facilitating change, it can replicate patriarchal goals and run counter to feminism (Ludlow). In this article, we show the way we utilized a feminist lens when designing and implementing a… Continue reading Service Learning as Social Justice Activism: Students Help a Campus Shift to Bystander Awareness by Irene Lietz & Erin Tunney

As Editor of Reflections, I am pleased to introduce this special issue focused on Disability Studies. I have had the pleasure of working with Allison Hitt and Bre Garrett, the Special Editors to this issue, these past few months. Their commitment to this special issue shows through in the dedication and hard work they’ve exhibited… Continue reading Editor’s Introduction by Cristina Kirklighter

Rosemarie Garland-Thomson describes disability as “the most human of experiences, touching every family and—if we live long enough—touching us all” (5) For Allison, disability has always been a lens through which I’ve viewed and understood people and environments, my family, and myself: growing up with an autistic older brother who my mom constantly advocated for,… Continue reading Special Editors’ Introduction: Engaging the Possibilities of Disability Studies by Allison Hitt & Bre Garrett

As the field of disability studies expands, a question that is cropping up in theoretical discussions more and more often is whether or not Fatness falls into the category of disability. Theorist April Herndon gives a compelling argument for the inclusion of Fat within disability studies, making an especially interesting connection between the idea of… Continue reading Overcoming the Odds: Disability Studies,Fat Studies, and Rhetorics of Bodily Control by Laura Thacker

For five years of graduate school, I avoided studying disability because I thought it would require confronting the idea that I have a disability. I was first introduced to disability studies during my master’s coursework. I mustered the courage to take the course on disability because deep down, I knew that this thing I was… Continue reading Why Study Disability? Lessons Learned from a Community Writing Project by Annika Konrad

This article offers a case study of the development and implementation of a free activist and leadership course for members of the community planning on running for elected office. The article describes how the course was developed, including an explanation of the partnership between the Latino Leadership Institute (LLI) and the University of Central Florida’s… Continue reading “An Open Mesh of Possibilities”: Engaging Disability Studies as a Site of Activist and Leadership Possibilities by Stephanie K. Wheeler