Friday, July 30, 2010

Disability Blog Carnival #68 is up NOW!

[visual description: photo used by RMJ in her edition of the Carnival; features a man making cotton candy; only his arms and torso are visible; a pinwheel and some heartshaped objects occupy the foreground]

RMJ at Deeply Problematic has just posted the July edition of the Disability Blog Carnival, with the theme "evidence." Go check it out for the usual remarkable range of voices and topics and tones--there really is something for everyone in the Carnival.

The next edition will be hosted at brilliantmindbrokenbody, with the invited theme of "distance." Here's the announcement. Submissions are due August 18th; you can leave a comment there or here, or if your post has the phrase "disability blog carnival" in it, I should be alerted about that too.

Friday, July 09, 2010

CFP: Disability & the Victorians

[From H-Disability and DS-Hum listservs.]

First Call for Papers:

Disability & the Victorians: Confronting Legacies

30th July-1st August 2012
Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies, Leeds Trinity University College, UK

The nineteenth century was the period during which disability was conceptualised, categorised, and defined. The industrial evolution, advances in medicine, the emergence of philanthropy and the growth of asylums all played their part in creating what today's society describes as the medical model of disability.

Disability can be traced through many forms: in material culture and literary genres; scientific, medical and official inquiries; art; architecture; the history of disabled charities; disabled people's experiences; the legacy inherited by disabled people today of phrenology and physiognomy; events such as the 1880 Milan Conference, and the taxonomies and categories of disability - the handicapped; the deaf and dumb; the feeble minded; the blind; the imbecile and the cretin. The legacy of the relationship between the body, the scientific and the literary text; the intersection of disability, theories of evolution and anthropology, gender and degeneration. How can we draw disabled voices and testimonies together to construct 'the long view'? What are the advantages and the challenges of teaching about disability and the disabled in the Victorian period?

Proposals for papers, panels, posters and other forms of presentation (e.g. creative writing) are invited that open up new lines of research and inquiry relating to any aspect of Disability in the Victorian period. Possible themes might include:
* Resistance, conformity, subversion, transgression.
* Freak shows and circuses.
* The visibility and invisibility of disability: beggars, street sellers, hawkers; Victorian institutions, charities, asylums, schools and clubs.
* Taxonomic practices.
* Disabled heroes and villains; male vs. female invalidism; the school of pain.
* Victorian technologies, prostheses, the emergence of audiology, the development and spread of Braille.
* The revival of folkloric changelings.
* Portrayals of children and childhood.
* Disability as a moral force for improvement, theology and spiritual enlightenment/development.
* The formation of Victorian national identity and national efficiency, empire, 'race' and colonialism.
* Disability and the fear of loss, eugenics and degeneration.
* The medical and scientific text.
* Victorian social policy and legal frameworks.

Those with an involvement in disability, either through work, teaching or direct experience, and papers that adopt a comparative frame, shifting across the normal boundaries of history, literary studies, the history of medicine, the history and philosophy of science, art history, the history of childhood etc. are especially sought, but studies with a narrower focus seeking to challenge Victorian legacies in this field are also welcome.

The deadline for the submission of proposals for panel sessions (no longer than 500 words) and proposals for individual 20-minute papers and presentations (200-250 words) is October 4, 2010. At this stage your proposal/enquiry may be exploratory. A second and final call for papers will be issued in June 2011.

Please send a short biographical note together with your proposal. Prospective panel organisers should also send the panelists' names, paper titles, and a short biographical note for each panelist and their contact details.

Support workers and carers are exempted from the conference registration fees. Papers will be circulated in advance of the conference. Please indicate by July 2011 if you would like LCVS to supply a sign language interpreter. Please indicate by April 2012 if you would like LCVS to supply an escort or support worker. All assistance dogs are welcome. If you have any enquiries regarding facilities and services for disabled people, or would like this Call for Papers in large print, please contact Joy Hamblin.

Proposals, or enquiries relating to these, should be sent to Karen Sayer k.sayer@leedstrinity.ac.uk

General enquiries to:
Joy Hamblin, Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies, Leeds Trinity University College, Brownberrie Lane, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS18 5HD, UK; email j.hamblin@leedstrinity.ac.uk; tel. +44 (0)113 2837305

Monday, July 05, 2010

CFP:International Interdisciplinary Conference “We and the others” XVII Semana de Ética y Filosofía Política. Donostia-San Sebastián; 1, 2,3 of June 2011

CALL FOR PAPERS: International Interdisciplinary Conference “We and the others” XVII Semana de Ética y Filosofía Política. Donostia-San Sebastián (Spain); 1, 2,3 of June 2011

The Spanish Association of Political Philosophy &Ethics is celebrating its 38th meeting in Donostia-San Sebastián this coming June, 2011. Thought as a meeting point for academic philosophy, European and Latin-American universities, and the general public, it has covered topics from theoretical approaches to current problems concerning contemporary democracy: such as new political movements in neo-colonial states (specially Latin America) stressing identity concerns. This year topic is “We and the Others” and focuses on minority issues, with topics ranging from History of moral and politic ideas to political imaginary in contemporary latin America. This year edition include Disability as a main topic in the minority issues. We welcome papers in Spanish, English & Basque. Deadline for proposals ends October 10th, 2010. More about the Conference can be found at:http://17semana.wordpress.com/
Disability : La construcción del sujeto político en el colectivo de personas con discapacidad / Political Agency in the
Disability Rights Movement
Coordinator: Melania Moscoso (melania.moscoso@gmail.com)
Over the last two decades, the Disability Rights Movement has joined the public debate about Human Rights and minority
issues. Compulsory institutionalization and segregated education have prevented the full participation of people with disabilities in
the public arena. The politic and civic agency of the Disability Rights Movement, in its theoretical contributions and field experiences
to public life, will be discussed in this Round Table.

Melania Moscoso, Phd.
Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Spanish Research Council.
C/Albasanz, 26-28. Madrid 28037 (España)
Tlf: 0034916022499
E-mail: melania.moscoso@cchs.csic.es