Nora Ellen Groce | |
---|---|
Alma mater | University of Michigan Brown University |
Occupation | Anthropologist |
Nora Ellen Groce is an anthropologist, global health expert and Director of the Disability Research Centre at University College London. [1] She is known for her work on vulnerable populations in low- and middle-income countries and in particular for her work on people with disabilities in the developing world. Her doctoral dissertation, published by Harvard University Press in 1985, Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha’s Vineyard, is considered a classic work in the disability studies and ethnographic literatures. [2]
An undergraduate major in anthropology at the University of Michigan (1974), she received her PhD in medical anthropology from Brown University and then served as Research Fellow at the Harvard University Medical School from 1984 to 1990. [3] She joined the faculty of the Yale School of Public Health from 1991 to 2008, rising to the rank of associate professor. [4] In 2008 she left the Yale School of Public Health to take the Leonard Cheshire Chair and become director of the Leonard Cheshire Disability Research Centre at the University College of London.
Groce has undertaken applied research on subjects such as poverty and disability, domestic violence, the impact of the HIV/AIDS on people with disabilities, disabled populations’ access to health care and social justice. Among her most recent work is her publication on disabled street beggars in Ethiopia (2013), [5] and on the emerging issue of Global disabilities for the Lancet (2018). [6] Author of over 250 journal articles, books and reports, she is a regular adviser for UN agencies, national governments and non-governmental organisations. [7] [1] She sits on a number of scientific advisory panels and review boards.
Groce is also known for her teaching and mentoring. While a research scientist at Harvard she regularly taught medical anthropology and international health courses. Working with Professor Lowell Levin, she helped establish and run the Global Health Division at the Yale School of Public Health in 1991, teaching a number of courses on global health, international development and social justice. [4]
The three models of deafness are rooted in either social or biological sciences. These are the cultural model, the social model, and themedicalmodel. The model through which the deaf person is viewed can impact how they are treated as well as their own self perception. In the cultural model, the Deaf belong to a culture in which they are neither infirm nor disabled, but rather have their own fully grammatical and natural language. In the medical model, deafness is viewed undesirable, and it is to the advantage of the individual as well as society as a whole to "cure" this condition. The social model seeks to explain difficulties experienced by deaf individuals that are due to their environment.
A spoken language is a language produced by articulate sounds or manual gestures, as opposed to a written language. An oral language or vocal language is a language produced with the vocal tract in contrast with a sign language, which is produced with the body and hands.
Martha's Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL) was a village sign-language that was once widely used on the island of Martha's Vineyard from the early 18th century to 1952. It was used by both deaf and hearing people in the community; consequently, deafness was not a barrier to participation in public life. Deaf people who signed Martha's Vineyard Sign Language were extremely independent.
The disability rights movement is a global social movement that seeks to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for all people with disabilities.
The recorded history of sign language in Western societies starts in the 17th century, as a visual language or method of communication, although references to forms of communication using hand gestures date back as far as 5th century BC Greece. Sign language is composed of a system of conventional gestures, mimic, hand signs and finger spelling, plus the use of hand positions to represent the letters of the alphabet. Signs can also represent complete ideas or phrases, not only individual words.
Old Kentish Sign Language was a village sign language of 17th-century Kent in the United Kingdom, that has been incorporated along with other village sign languages into British Sign Language.
Paola Cavalieri is an Italian philosopher, most known for her work arguing for extension of human rights to the other great apes and more broadly, "to mammals and birds, and probably vertebrates in general". In addition to her books, she was the editor of Etica & Animali, a quarterly international philosophy journal that published nine volumes from 1988 to 1998.
Karen Nakamura is an American academic, author, filmmaker, photographer and the Robert and Colleen Haas Distinguished Chair of Disability Studies and Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Berkeley. Previously she was Associate Professor of Anthropology and East Asian Studies and Chair of LGBT Studies at Yale University.
The virgin cleansing myth is the belief that having sex with a virgin girl cures a man of HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases. Helping the idea that Christian women who were virgins, were capable of being powerful enough to fight off transmitted diseases.
The world's poor are significantly more likely to have or incur a disability within their lifetime compared to more financially privileged populations. The rate of disability within impoverished nations is notably higher than that found in more developed countries. Since the early 2010s there has been growing research in support of an association between disability and poverty and of a cycle by which poverty and disability are mutually reinforcing. Physical, cognitive, mental, emotional, sensory, or developmental impairments independently or in tandem with one another may increase one's likelihood of becoming impoverished, while living in poverty may increase one's potential of having or acquiring disability in some capacity.
Disability in Ghana has a massive amount of stigma; children or people who are born disabled or deformed are assumed to be possessed by evil spirits.
Ola Abu Al Ghaib or Ola Abualghaib is a Palestinian disability rights advocate. In August 2019, she was appointed Manager of the Technical Secretariat of the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD).
Jane Hubert was a social anthropologist, known in particular for her work in mental health and intellectual disability. She was also known for her work in the field of cultural memory studies and archaeology.
Terry M. McGovern is the Harriet and Robert H. Heilbrunn Professor and Chair of the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Since 2018, she has served as director of the Department's Program on Global Health Justice and Governance. Before joining the Mailman School, in 1989 McGovern founded the HIV Law Project and served as the Executive Director until 1999. While at the HIV Law Project, Terry McGovern litigated the groundbreaking case, S.P. v. Sullivan, which led to the Social Security Administration including HIV-related disability in their criteria. She was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the National Task Force on AIDS Drug Development.
Michele Barry is a professor of medicine. She became Stanford's inaugural Senior Associate Dean of global health in 2009 and started the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health in 2010. Prior to this, she was a professor at Yale, where she started the first refugee health clinic and homeless health mobile van project, for which she was awarded the Elm Ivy Mayor’s Award. She specializes in tropical medicine, emerging infectious diseases, women’s leadership in global health, and human and planetary health.
Jos Boys is an architect, activist, educator, and writer. She was a founder member of Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative and co-author of their 1984 book Making Space: Women and the Man-Made Environment. Since 2008 she has been co-director of The DisOrdinary Architecture Project with disabled artist Zoe Partington, a disability-led platform that works with disabled artists to explore new ways to think about disability in architectural and design discourse and practice.
Tolullah "Tolu" Oni is a Nigerian urban epidemiologist at the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge. She is a NextEinstein Forum Fellow and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
The flagship publication series of the International Organization for Migration, the World Migration Report presents data and information on human migration together with analysis of complex and emerging migration issues.
Bolajoko Olubukunola Olusanya is a Nigerian paediatrician and social entrepreneur. She is a specialist in audiological medicine.
People with disability in Liberia face many challenges. The cultural attitude towards disability in Liberia is largely negative. Often, it is seen as the result of witchcraft or as punishment for a person's behavior. However, the government and non-governmental organizations (NGO) are working towards a more inclusive country for people with disabilities.