Background on the Book
Reading Schedule
Week of Sept 12:
1. Active practice
Week of Sept 19:
2. Picturing people with disabilities: classical portraiture as reconstructive narrative
3. Agents at Angkor
Week of Sept 26:
4. 'See no evil'
5. Ghosts in the war museum
Week of Oct 3:
6. Behind the shadow of Merrick
7. Disability reframed: challenging visitor perceptions in the museum
Week of Oct 10:
8. To label the label? 'Learning disability' and exhibiting 'critical proximity'
9. Hurting and healing: reflections on representing experiences of mental illness in museums
10. Histories of disability and medicine: reconciling historical narratives and contemporary values
Week of Oct 17:
11. Revealing moments: representations of disability and sexuality
12. The red wheelchair in the white snowdrift
13. Face to face: representing disfigurement in a museum context
Week of Oct 24:
14. 'Out from Under': a brief history of everything
15. Transforming practice: disability perspectives and the museum
16. Reciprocity, accountability, empowerment: emancipatory principles and practices in the museum
Week of Oct 31:
17. Disability, human rights, and the public gaze: The Losheng Story Museum
18. A museum for all? The Norwegian Museum of Deaf History and Culture
19. Collective bodies: what museums do for disabilities studies
Hello everyone!
ReplyDeleteWe will be reading and reviewing "Re-Presenting Disability: Activism and Agency in the Museum", edited by Sandell, Dodd and Garland-Thomson. I chose this book for mostly personal reasons. A few years ago, I experienced a severe decline in my neurological health that resulted in complete bilateral hearing loss, impaired balance and reflexes, and severely impaired use of my hands. I was perfectly healthy up until about the age of 28, and now, five years later, I live with multiple disabilities. I would like to use my experience with adjusting to this new life, in order to improve museum experiences for other people with disabilities. In reading and reviewing this book, I hope to broaden my perspective on disabilities, including my own.
I encourage you to comment and ask questions as we move through the selections in this book, and I will post discussion questions for each reading selection. I will also post longer blog entries on Oct 10, Oct 24 and Nov 7. These blog posts will provide my point of view on the readings, as well as summarize and respond to ongoing comments/discussion for each week's selections.
Below, I have posted the reading schedule, and I'd like to pose a couple questions to consider as we begin our read-along and review of this book:
How do YOU define disability?
What's the difference between an 'abled' person and a 'disabled' person?
Reading Schedule
Week of Sept 12:
1. Active practice
Week of Sept 19:
2. Picturing people with disabilities: classical portraiture as reconstructive narrative
3. Agents at Angkor
Week of Sept 26:
4. 'See no evil'
5. Ghosts in the war museum
Week of Oct 3:
6. Behind the shadow of Merrick
7. Disability reframed: challenging visitor perceptions in the museum
Week of Oct 10:
8. To label the label? 'Learning disability' and exhibiting 'critical proximity'
9. Hurting and healing: reflections on representing experiences of mental illness in museums
10. Histories of disability and medicine: reconciling historical narratives and contemporary values
Week of Oct 17:
11. Revealing moments: representations of disability and sexuality
12. The red wheelchair in the white snowdrift
13. Face to face: representing disfigurement in a museum context
Week of Oct 24:
14. 'Out from Under': a brief history of everything
15. Transforming practice: disability perspectives and the museum
16. Reciprocity, accountability, empowerment: emancipatory principles and practices in the museum
Week of Oct 31:
17. Disability, human rights, and the public gaze: The Losheng Story Museum
18. A museum for all? The Norwegian Museum of Deaf History and Culture
19. Collective bodies: what museums do for disabilities studies