SDS, Day 3--short report

I had to depart the conference after lunch on Day 3, so I was only able to attend one panel--but it was a good one. If I had missed my flight to see David Linton's talk and eat mango cheesecake, it would have been absolutely worth it.

Linton's talk was about the use of "handicap"/sickness/cure language in Kotex advertisements of the 1920s--he had the room (which was spilling into the hallway) gasping and exclaiming with his visuals, many of them found at Duke University Archive's wondrous Ad*Access site (part of the Digital Scriptorium). At left, one of his examples: "A Great Hygienic Handicap that Your Daughter will be Spared," reads the headline on this 1926 ad, illustrated by a drawing of two seated women (presumably mother and daughter), slim and in stylish dress, clasping hands as if they're having an important talk ("the talk," as Linton put it). The small-print text extols how "Like most things, woman's greatest hygienic handicap has yielded to modern scientific attainment."

Linton had the deadpan vocal delivery of a presenter on This American Life, too, where lighter hilarity wouldn't have served the topic--after all, these aren't just quaint old advertisements, if you remember what terms like "hygiene" and "modern scientific attainment" were also about in 1920s America, in the heyday of eugenics and Americanization. (Linton is also known, on excellent authority, as "the funkiest man on skates," a claim that nobody could challenge after Friday night's dance--and he wasn't even wearing skates at the time.)

Checking in from SDS, Day 2

Hello from the lobby of the Sea-Tac Hilton, on day 2 of the 20th anniversary meeting of the Society for Disability Studies. The session I mentioned heading to last entry turned out to be a Deaf history panel, and it was really great to see a set of young scholars (Sara Robinson, Lindsey Parker, and Elizabeth Bush) digging into some issues of community, age, gender, space, and identity in contexts like a "home for the elderly and infirm deaf" in the mid-20th century, or among the first women to graduate from Gallaudet, or in national Deaf empowerment organizations (where the women were, initially, barred from membership, but more than welcome to form fund-raising auxiliaries). And as if those papers weren't enough, Susan Burch gave a fourth presentation about her soon-to-be-published work on Junius Wilson--a life story that complicates a lot of the givens about D/deaf cultural history. So that was cool.

This morning I made it to the plenary, on "The Future of Disability Arts." Very disappointed to find that a favorite dancer-blogger couldn't make it as scheduled, but her paper was still presented, and very cool. Petra Kuppers ended her portion of the program on a slide that read, "We do not need positive images. We need depth, and heft, and presence." Right on. Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren and Jim Ferris were the other presenters--I'm not going to quote you some of the stronger language in Ferris' manifesto, but it was all arresting and powerful.

Had some local friends to hang out with this afternoon, but soon I'll be covering the Disability History Association booth at the poster session and reception. Again, sorry no links, I'm really just tapping this in on the run. I'll add them in later, as opportunity permits.

Quick check in from SDS, Day 1

So I'm in the lobby at the airport Hilton in Seattle, catching a few minutes of internet access to check in from the 20th meeting of the Society for Disability Studies, which started today and runs through Saturday night. I gave my presentation this morning (on a panel about "global disability," which was a stretch for this US historian, but I think it turned out fine). Next stop was a fine panel of philosophers speaking on personhood, dignity, and justice for people with "severe mental retardation" (and they were careful to assure us that they understood the problems with the term and the diagnosis, but that they would be using it in part to confront all that). I'm usually wary of philosophy panels (just don't have a theory brain, myself)--but Licia Carlson, Sophia Wong, and Anna Stubblefield all gave talks that were engaging and very grounded. After lunch, I took a bus over to the University of Washington campus to see a performance by the wondrous collaborative effort that is the Anarcha Project--I didn't realize I'd be seeing the culmination of the last of their workshops in this format, so that was bittersweet, but very worthwhile.

Now I'm waiting for the 5:15 sessions to start--I'm planning to attend the one titled "'Minority Identities Under Construction': Intersections of Gender, Disability, and the Public Sphere." More tomorrow!

(And I'll add in some links for this entry when I get a chance.)