Kim E. Nielsen

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Kim E. Nielsen
Occupationhistorian and author
Education
Genredisability studies

Kim E. Nielsen is an American historian and author who specializes in disability studies. Since 2012, Nielsen has been a professor of history, disability studies, and women's studies at the University of Toledo. [1] Nielsen originally trained as historian of women and politics, and came to disability history and studies via her discovery of Helen Keller's political life. [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Nielsen grew up largely in Northern Minnesota. She earned a BA from Macalester College in 1988, and from the University of Iowa an MA in 1991 and a PhD in 1996. [1] At Macalester she was mentored by Peter Rachleff, and her thesis advisor at Iowa was Linda Kerber. [3]

Career

For fourteen years, until 2012, she was a professor of Democracy and Justice Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. [4] Nielsen has written biographies of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy, [5] and participated as an on-screen expert in the American Masters episode, "Becoming Helen Keller" (2021). [6]

She was the founding president of the Disability History Association, [7] and her book A Disability History of the United States (2012) was described as "the first broad survey of its topic and the first work to lay out a complete periodization of American disability history". [8] [9] [10]

Filmmaker John Gianvito called The Radical Lives of Helen Keller "the best of the biographies" in a 2020 interview. [11] A 2021 essay in The New York Times calls The Radical Lives of Helen Keller "a revelation". [12] In "Disability History, Power, and Rethinking the Idea of 'The Other'" (2005), historian Catherine Kudlick notes that "Unlike earlier biographers, Nielsen places Keller's life in the context of major trends in American history ... to understand her and her disability as rich and complex rather than as a feel-good caricature of one inspirational person." [13]

Awards and honors

Nielsen has received honors from the Organization of American Historians (OAH) and the Southern Association for Women Historians (SAWH). The SAWH awarded her the 2007 Elizabeth Taylor Prize for the best article in southern women's history. In 1998, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Iceland, and in 2005 held an OAH Lectureship in Japan. [1]

She is the winner of the 2021 Rosen Prize of the American Association for the History of Medicine for The Oxford Handbook of Disability History, co-edited with Michael Rembis and Catherine J. Kudlick. [14] The book also won the 2019 Disability History Association Book Award. [15]

Published works

With Michael Rembis, Nielsen co-edits Disability Histories, a book series published by the University of Illinois Press. The series explores the lived experiences of individuals and groups from a broad range of societies, cultures, time periods, and geographic locations, who either identified as disabled or were considered by the dominant culture to be disabled. [16]

From 2015 to 2018 she coedited the Disability Studies Quarterly with Allyson Day. [17]

Further reading

Related Research Articles

Helen Keller American author, disability rights advocate and political activist (1880–1968)

Helen Adams Keller was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. Born in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, she lost her sight and her hearing after a bout of illness at the age of 19 months. She then communicated primarily using home signs until the age of seven, when she met her first teacher and life-long companion Anne Sullivan. This young woman taught Keller language, including reading and writing. After an education at both specialist and mainstream schools, Keller attended Radcliffe College of Harvard University and became the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Anne Sullivan Teacher and companion of Helen Keller

Anne Sullivan Macy was an American teacher best known for being the instructor and lifelong companion of Helen Keller.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Kim E. Nielsen". University of Toledo. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Kim Nielsen: A Disability History Of The United States". WORT. November 23, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Q&A with Kim E. Nielsen, author of Marriage, Money, and Madness". University of Illinois Press. May 26, 2020.
  4. ↑ "'After Thoughts' series returns Sept. 20 with Nielsen talk". Inside UW-Green Bay News. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  5. ↑ Godin, M. Leona (October 21, 2021). "Helen Keller and the Problem of 'Inspiration Porn'". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  6. ↑ "Becoming Helen Keller". American Masters, PBS. August 30, 2021. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  7. ↑ "About Kim E. Nielsen". ReVisioning History. July 28, 2015. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
  8. ↑ Brune, Jeffrey (March 24, 2013). "Review of Nielsen, A Disability History of the United States". Disability Studies Quarterly. 33 (2). doi:10.18061/dsq.v33i2.3719. ISSN   2159-8371.
  9. ↑ Kuusisto, Stephen (2012). Nielsen, Kim E. (ed.). "Disability and Democracy". The Wilson Quarterly. 36 (4). doi:10.2307/wilsonq.36.4.135. ISSN   0363-3276.
  10. ↑ McLemee, Scott (September 26, 2012). "Review of Kim E. Nielsen, "A Disability History of the United States"". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  11. ↑ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (2020). "Helen Keller and Untold Histories (Hers and Ours): An Interview with John Gianvito". Cinéaste. Vol. 46, no. 1. pp. 38–41. JSTOR   26976473.
  12. ↑ "Is a Helen Keller Obsession Holding Disabled People Back?". The New York Times (Opinion). October 21, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  13. ↑ Kudlick, Catherine J. (2005). "Disability History, Power, and Rethinking the Idea of "The Other"". PMLA. 120 (2): 557–561. JSTOR   25486184.
  14. ↑ "George Rosen Prize". AAHM. 2021.
  15. ↑ "PUBLIC DISABILITY HISTORY AWARD". Disability History Association.
  16. ↑ "DISABILITY HISTORIES". University of Illinois Press.
  17. ↑ "Disability Studies Quarterly". 36 (2). Allyson Day. May 26, 2016. doi:10.18061/dsq.v36i2.5249.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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