Alison Kafer | |
---|---|
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Professor of Feminist Studies |
Known for | Feminist, queer, and disability theory |
Title | Associate professor |
Academic background | |
Education | PhD |
Alma mater | Claremont Graduate University |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Liberal Arts |
Sub-discipline | Feminist studies |
Main interests | Feminist and disability theory |
Notable works | Feminist,Queer,Crip |
Notable ideas | Crip Time |
Website | https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/english/faculty/ak34238 |
Alison Kafer is an American academic specializing in feminist,queer,and disability theory. As of 2019 [update] ,she is an associate professor of feminist studies at the University of Texas,Austin. She is the author of the book Feminist,Queer,Crip.
Kafer graduated in 1993 with a B.A. with Honors in Art from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem,North Carolina. In 2000,she received an M.A. in Women's Studies and Religion,followed by a Ph.D. in 2005,both from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont,California. [1]
Kafer has held a variety of academic positions at several universities in the United States.
After her M.A.,she was a Visiting Dissertation Fellow in Women's Studies at the University of California,Santa Barbara from 2002 to 2003. Following her Ph.D. she was an Ed Roberts Fellow in Disability Studies at the University of California,Berkeley from 2006 to 2007. [1]
Kafer taught at Southwestern University in Georgetown,Texas from 2004 to 2018,and was promoted to Professor of Feminist Studies in 2015. She also servied as Chair of Feminist Studies from 2010 to 2018 and Associate Dean of Humanities from 2014 to 2016. [1] Kafer won the 2008 Southwestern Teaching Award for her "outstanding performance in the classroom" as a non-tenured faculty member. [2]
As of 2019 [update] ,Kafer is the Embrey Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies as well as associate professor of English at the University of Texas in Austin. [1] She has served on multiple nonprofit boards,including What's Your Issue?;the Society for Disability Studies;and Generations Ahead. [3] [4]
Kafer focuses on political/relational framings of disability to create coalitional opportunities for "cross-movement social justice work,namely how to think disability in and through movements for environmental,gender,racial,and reproductive justice". [5]
Kafer's major work,a book titled Feminist,Queer,Crip,was published by Indiana University Press in 2013. The book argues that feminist,queer,and disability studies are intricately linked. The book was well received in academic journals,although Barbara Neukirchinger in Feminist Review stated,"... it runs a risk of not being accessible to a wider audience outside of academia". [6]
Rosemarie Garland-Thomson of the Journal of Literary &Cultural Disability Studies wrote,"Feminist,Queer,Crip makes significant contributions to our understanding of how disability works in the world,contributions that no other academic book in the recently emergent field of interdisciplinary disability studies has done so thoroughly." [7] Eliza Chandler of the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies wrote,"This book breathes the poetics of disability life,a life that is consistently under threat,in a way that is complex,clear,highly accessible,and grounded in the politics of everyday life. For this reason,it may not be just that this book is highly teachable (which it is);this is a book that must be included in any disability studies,queer theory,and feminist theory curricula." [8]
Sami Schalk of Disability Studies Quarterly wrote,"Where else can we locate and bring attention to issues of ability and disability in the academy and beyond? Alison Kafer finds it on the billboards on her way home,in the news stories about cybernetic technology,on the hiking trails in state parks,and in the future or futures we imagine and create for ourselves. In the end,Feminist,Queer,Crip reminds us what we in some ways already know—issues of ability and disability are all around us—but Kafer doesn't just remind us of this fact with her book,she also prompts us to do more with our scholarship and activism by being a bright and innovative example of powerful,intersectional and grounded disability theory." [9]
Jenny Slater of the journal Disability &Society stated,"[T]his book will be of interest to activists,students and academics,working along feminist,queer,crip lines,who want to imagine futures otherwise. Some chapters may be tricky for those unfamiliar with the texts discussed. However,every chapter—not least the activist presents—provide a starting place for much needed dialogue of subjects that are too often silent." [10]
Victoria Kannen of the Journal of Gender Studies gave the book a positive review,and stated Kafer "convincingly argues the ways in which disability is political". The journal also stated the book is "more than informative" and "beautifully confronts the limits of language". [11] Julie Passanante Elman of QED:A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking stated Kafter made "theoretical contributions to a dizzying array of fields,including feminist theory,environmental studies,queer theory,transgender studies,disability studies,and bioethics". [12] Eunjung Kim of philoSOPHIA stated Kafter challenges "the assumption that any desirable future would naturally be the future without disability and illness". [13]
Emma Sheppard of the Journal of the International Network for Sexual Ethics &Politics stated Feminist,Queer,Crip is "intensely personal" for Kafer,as she recounts her own disability in within the book and draws on other stories as well. Sheppard stated,"Kafer's concern for future is a crip concern" and examines time through crip time. [14] Eve Lacey of Studies in the Maternal said that Kafer "writes with an acute awareness of intersectionality and her understanding of reproductive politics repeatedly challenges ableist notions of care,future,and productivity". [15]
Kafer has contributed to a number of anthologies,including Feminist Disability Studies [16] and Sex and Disability. [17]
Articles by Kafer have been published in the Disability Studies Quarterly , [18] the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies , [19] and South Atlantic Quarterly. [20]
Kafer co-edited the book Deaf and Disability Studies:Interdisciplinary Perspectives,published by Gallaudet University Press in 2010,with Susan Burch. [21] [22] She also co-edited "Growing Disability Studies",a 2014 special issue of the journal Disability Studies Quarterly ,with Michelle Jarman. [23]
Kafer grew up in New Bern,North Carolina. She began using a wheelchair after sustaining extensive injuries in a 1994 building fire in Asheville,North Carolina. [24]
Disability studies is an academic discipline that examines the meaning,nature,and consequences of disability. Initially,the field focused on the division between "impairment" and "disability",where impairment was an impairment of an individual's mind or body,while disability was considered a social construct. This premise gave rise to two distinct models of disability:the social and medical models of disability. In 1999 the social model was universally accepted as the model preferred by the field. However,in recent years,the division between the social and medical models has been challenged. Additionally,there has been an increased focus on interdisciplinary research. For example,recent investigations suggest using "cross-sectional markers of stratification" may help provide new insights on the non-random distribution of risk factors capable of acerbating disablement processes.
Robert McRuer is an American theorist who has contributed to fields in transnational queer and disability studies. McRuer is known as being one of the founding scholars involved in forming the field of queer disability studies,particularly for a theoretical outlook known as crip theory. He is currently professor of English at The George Washington University in Washington,DC.
Uruguayan Sign Language,or Lengua de señas uruguaya (LSU),is the deaf sign language of Uruguay,used since 1910. It is not intelligible with neighboring languages,though it may have historical connections with Paraguayan Sign Language.
The representation of disability in children's literature is a matter of scholarly research,and has been a relevant subject particularly since the 1970s. However,disability representation is still a modern issue. A 2011 World Report on Disability conducted by the World Health Organization found that around 15% of the global population,1 billion people,have a disability,yet in 2019 only 3.4% of children's books had disabled main characters. The quality of disability representation can vary depending on the specific disability portrayed. Even though society has included more diverse characters with disabilities,this representation must be handled with care to avoid promoting existing negative stereotypes.
Queer Crips:Disabled Gay Men and Their Stories is a 2004 anthology edited by Bob Guter and John R. Killacky. The book is a collection of personal stories from gay men with disabilities. The stories are told through a variety of literary genres,including poetry,prose,and interviews. The book won the 2004 Lambda Literary Award for the Anthologies/Non-fiction category. Contributors to the book include gay men such as Greg Walloch and Kenny Fries. Disability rights activist J. Quinn Brisben was also a contributor. After being turned down for publication by 30 publishers,the anthology was finally published by Harrington Park Press,an imprint of Haworth Press.
Persimmon Blackbridge is a Canadian writer and artist whose work focuses on feminist,lesbian,disability and mental health issues. She identifies herself as a lesbian,a person with a disability and a feminist. Her work explores these intersections through her sculptures,writing,curation and performance. The novels she has written follow characters that are very similar to Blackbridge's own life experiences,allowing her to write honestly about her perspective. Blackbridge's struggle with her mental health has become a large part of her practice,and she uses her experience with mental health institutions to address her perspective on them. Blackbridge is involved in the film,SHAMELESS:The Art of Disability exploring the complexity of living with a disability. Her contributions to projects like this help destigmatize the attitudes towards people with disabilities. Blackbridge has won many awards for her work exploring her identity and the complexities that come with it.
Rosemarie Garland-Thomson is Professor of English at Emory University with a focus on disability studies and feminist theory. Her book Extraordinary Bodies,published in 1997,is a founding text in the disability studies canon.
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Karma R. Chávez is a rhetorical critic who utilizes textual and field-based methods and studies the rhetorical practices of people marginalized within existing power structures. She has published numerous scholarly articles and books,including Queer Migration Politics:Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities,as well as co-founding the Queer Migration Research Network. She works with social justice organizations and her scholarship is informed by queer of color theory,women of color feminism,poststructuralism,and cultural studies.
Alison Piepmeier was an American scholar and feminist,known for her book Girl Zines:Making Media,Doing Feminism. She was director of Women's and Gender Studies and associate professor of English at the College of Charleston.
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Maren Tova Linett is a literary critic and Professor of English at Purdue University. Her research focuses on modernist literature and Jewish studies,disability studies,and bioethics,and her major works include Modernism,Feminism,and Jewishness (2007),Bodies of Modernism (2017), and Literary Bioethics (2020). She has also published work in academic journals such as the Journal of Modern Literature,Twentieth-Century Literature,Disability Studies Quarterly,and the Journal of Medical Humanities.
Liat Ben-Moshe is a disability scholar and assistant professor of criminology,Law,and Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ben-Moshe holds a PhD in sociology from Syracuse University with concentrations in Women and Gender Studies and Disability Studies. Ben-Moshe's work “has brought an intersectional disability studies approach to the phenomenon of mass incarceration and decarceration in the US”. Ben-Moshe's major works include Building Pedagogical Curb Cuts:Incorporating Disability into the University Classroom and Curriculum (2005),Disability Incarcerated:Imprisonment and Disability in the United States and Canada (2014),and Decarcerating Disability:Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition (2020). Ben-Moshe is best known for her theories of dis-epistemology,genealogy of deinstitutionalization,and race-ability.
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