Journalist – Historian – Speaker
Last week The Guardian had a piece on the “first science fiction book,” an alchemy fantasy from 1617. I haven’t read The Chemical Wedding (though there’s a Kickstarter, now funded with 60k, that’s producing a new edition), but I was instantly skeptical of the “first” claim, so took to Twitter to ask for ideas of precursors. Juliet O’Brien, …
There’s a newish piece in Pacific Standard, a magazine for which I write, that criticizes the neurodiversity movement as being focused on a tiny group of super high functioning autistic folks. You can read it here. “The Autistic Academic” blog has written an excellent response. You can read it here. Please link to other responses …
I need to read more murder journalism. Does non-disability-related murder spend as much time exploring how killers justify their crimes? Here’s WaPo on Bonnie Lilitz, who killed her daughter: Bonnie Liltz, it seemed, had reached a desperate moment. At home in a Chicago suburb late last spring, Liltz penned a final note to her family, …
I have decided to stop giving in-class tests under any circumstances. Here’s my essay, from the Chronicle: I’ve been inching away from the blue book for years, but it’s time to go cold turkey and match my praxis to my principles. Whatever pedagogical gains the in-class test might bring — and I’ll argue they are …
Did you know it’s legal for certain schools to apply electric shocks to autistic children as a form of “therapy?” It is. It’s horrific. After years of work, the FDA is considering banning it. You can submit your comment here. Shain M. Neumeier, who has been working on this for years, had an op-ed on …
I generally start my presentations on police use of force and disability by talking about a deaf man shot in the back. I like to end (or at least end the section), by talking about non-white men killed while wearing ear buds, talking on cell phones, or not speaking English. It’s a way to point …
Every year, Western Michigan University, in Kalamazoo, hosts about 3000 medievalists for a giant, sprawling, conference that I call MedievalCon. It has its significant academic context, but it’s also embraced seriously fannish elements (or had them thrust upon it). On Saturday nights, there’s a panel hosted by the “Pseudosociety,” in which academics deliver humorous satirical …
I was going to post this yesterday, but was too sick. Below is a tweet from former graduate student in medieval literature, responding to a petulant tweet by a racist UKIP (right-wing English political party) about an actress of color playing Queen Margaret of Anjou. Hi @CllrChrisWood that’s a lovely medieval image you have there. …
The celebrity with disabled sibling genre of story tend to be pretty awful. The celebrity is asked about their sibling and, in response, the celebrity says things like overcome, inspiration, and other usual platitudes. This is partially because that’s how we’ve learned to talk about disability, partially because celebrities sell clicks and so interviewer isn’t …
Next week, I’ll having a conversation with the brilliant Ada Palmer about her debut novel, Too Like the Lightning (from Tor). Her scholarship on Renaissance reception of Classical knowledge is impeccable, but she’s also the author of a complex, innovative, work of speculative fiction, the first of four books, just released last week. Instead of …