Cognitive Disability: a challenge to Moral Philosophy

via Brian Zimmermann
Ipods from the Conference Cognitive Disability: a challenge to Moral Philosophy held in Stony Brook College past September are now available. Starring Peter Singer, Martha Nussbaum, Eva Kittay and other. In some of them you will be able to see how these scholars get when left Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


http://www.stonybrook.edu/sb/cdconference/podcasts.shtml

October 27: Sigrid Hjertén (1885-1948)

[Image description: A self-portrait by Sigrid Hjertén, showing herself painting, seated, in a plumed hat, with a pale-green top, bowtie, black belt, and red trousers; a child --presumably her son Ivan-- and his toy are nearby in the background.]

Born on this date in 1885, in Sundsvall, Swedish painter Sigrid Hjertén. Today she's recognized as a major figure in Scandinavian expressionism. She studied with Matisse; she married a fellow artist, Isaac Grünewald; she designed tapestries and ceramics. She had a solo exhibition at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in 1936, which was well-received.

By 1938, she was in her fifties, divorced, and experiencing mental illness. She had been hospitalized with symptoms of schizophrenia (as it was assessed in her time) as early as 1932; she would spend her last ten years in a Stockholm hospital, until she died from excessive bleeding during a botched surgical lobotomy in 1948.

Disability in other campaigns this year, part 2

Because disabled people (like Itzhak Perlman) don't just have opinions about healthcare and disability rights, but about the whole range of issues in play this election year:

Disability Blog Carnival #48 is up now!

Terri at Barriers, Bridges, and Books has the latest edition, with links around the theme of "Capacities and Capabilities." I especially appreciated the links that took a critical look at the theme itself--because our carnival is feisty and non-compliant like that, sometimes. Other posts cover creativity, ukeleles, adaptive technology, inflatable climbing structures, the upcoming presidential election in the US, new babies, good restaurants, college, Thanksgiving, and chemistry. Must be something in that list to pique your interest, so go over and check it out.

Next edition of the Carnival will be held at I Hate Stairs, where your host Blake has set the theme as "Lists." Dos and Don'ts, Top 10s, bucket lists, packing lists, to-do lists, reading lists, shopping lists, you name it, he wants your links, by all the usual means. You can leave a comment here, or at I Hate Stairs, or submit a link for consideration through the blogcarnival.com form (warning: inaccessible CAPTCHA feature). Or you can put the phrase "Disability Blog Carnival" in the text of your post, I usually find those too. Deadline for submissions is Monday, 10 November, and the carnival should post on Thursday, 13 November.

October 19: Lajos Tihanyi (1885-1938)

[Visual description: A 1912 self-portrait by Lajos Tihanyi, showing the influence of cubism--he depicts himself as a pale man with expressive eyes and raised eyebrows, wearing somber browns, against a backdrop of white and crimson.]

Deaf avant-garde artist Lajos Tihanyi was born on this date in 1885, in Budapest, Hungary. His father owned a coffeehouse. Young Lajos survived meningitis at age 11, which was the origin of his deafness. (Though he's sometimes referred to as "deaf and dumb" or "deaf-mute" in older sources, Tihanyi spoke--he was just hard for many to understand.)

He briefly attended the School for Industrial Drawing in Budapest, but he learned the most from being with other artists. His work reflects the influences of the broader artistic movements of his day. In 1911, he was one of the founders of "the Eight," a group of modern artists in Budapest. His portraits subjects in the 1910s included many of the leading writers, composers, philosophers, and artists of Hungary.

Tihanyi and many other artists fled Hungary in 1919 after the fall of the short-lived Soviet republic, and never returned. During his later years in Paris, he lived in the Hotel des Terrasses and was a regular at the Dome Cafe, where he came to know Brassaï (a fellow Hungarian artist), Picasso, and novelist Henry Miller. At his death, the contents of Tihanyi's studio were donated to the Hungarian National Gallery.

See more of Tihanyi's works, here and here.

See also:

Valerie Majoros, "Lajos Tihanyi and his friends in the Paris of the nineteen-thirties," French Cultural Studies 11(3)(2000): 387-396.

Disability in other campaigns this year

We haven't had an equivalent of the 2006 Michael J. Fox ad this season (yet), but here's one current ad from a Senate race (New Mexico) that's tightly focused on disability, specifically on brain-injured young veterans:



[Video description: Erik Schei, a young man with close-cropped sandy hair and glasses is seated facing the camera, with a screen in front of him. We hear him in a computer-generated voice explaining that he is an Iraq War veteran who was brain injured by a sniper's bullet, and not expected to survive. He then thanks Congressman Tom Udall for supporting funding for research into traumatic brain injuries. At the end of the video, he mouths the words "thank you."]

Run across any others?

Added later: More on Erik Schei.

Say what?

From last night's debate (transcripts here):

MCCAIN: She'll be my partner. She understands reform. And, by the way, she also understands special-needs families. She understands that autism is on the rise, that we've got to find out what's causing it, and we've got to reach out to these families, and help them, and give them the help they need as they raise these very special needs children.

So... Sarah Palin understands about autism, because she has a six-month-old with Down syndrome? Walk me through that one, please. (Not surprisingly, Kristina Chew has the same question, with links. Yes, Palin has a nephew with autism. So do a lot of other people. That fact alone is not so impressive a qualification as McCain seems to think.)

And still, again, and again, only families with "very special needs" children are mentioned in the campaign's discussions of disability. What about disabled adults who need healthcare, jobs, access, transportation, etc. etc.? No mention of adults. What do they imagine happens to the "very special needs" children after about twenty years?

A hug and a wink from Sarah Palin won't keep my kid alive and well. Niceties are not a substitute for the programs and regulations that protect his rights--and his life.

Be sure to check out William Peace's commentary on the same passages in the debate transcripts, for further discussion.