Blog

Richard Utz has a piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the ways that medievalist can more intentionally link what they do to popular expressions of ideas about the Middle Ages. There is now a manifest discrepancy between the large number of students who request that we address their love of Harry Potter, Lord … Continue ReadingPower and the Limitations of Public Medievalism

I wrote a piece for CNN opposing the Ohio Down Syndrome Abortion Ban. Read it here.  It’s been picked up and quoted by some interesting folks. I like to track impact of my writing on other journalists. I gave this quote to Mic directly: “But beliefs in abortion rights and disability rights are not mutually … Continue ReadingImpact Post: CNN Piece on Down Syndrome Ban in Ohio

I have a new piece on Vice about Westworld. It’s a new show coming from HBO and could be pretty awesome. Or, it could just re-tread the “robots become sentient” stuff from Battlestar Galactica and Humans and Ex Machina and whatever. Here’s my hope: Because Westworld is set in an amusement park, the movie deliberately invokes clichés. You might … Continue ReadingRobots vs Zombies

Over the weekend, the New York Times had a front-page story on the Ohio GOP’s plan to pass a ban on abortions based on prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. It got a ton of social media play and was the top story on Huffington Post for some hours yesterday, in part because John Kasich, Ohio’s governor, is … Continue ReadingResources: Down Syndrome and the Abortion Wars

From Damien Walter at The Guardian on The Hugos: A snapshot of today’s sci-fi publishing industry – as opposed to the fandom that ultimately underwrites the industry’s business – does not show a diverse picture. Both bookshelves and cinema screens are currently dominated by the Matt Damon/Andy Weir vehicle The Martian and its archaically old-fashioned (and vastly … Continue ReadingBrief Book Review: Reading The Martian during The Hugos

Still blogging. But mostly – I am writing a book: Disability Is Not A Crime I’m home from DC. Amazing time at the NARPA Conference: Beyond CIT Training session I helped run, but mostly honored to meet so many advocates and experts doing the work in the trenches. Special thanks to the folks at Bazelon who co-presented with … Continue ReadingSunday Round-ups

I am flying to DC today for the annual NARPA – National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy – Conference. I’ll be speaking about police violence and disability, along with two people from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. They will focus on policy and law. I’m going to tell stories about deaths, discuss … Continue ReadingNARPA Conference: Beyond CIT Training

Thesis: If you genuinely want to increase coverage of an issue, start with your own community and work outward. Anything else is just an attempt to play one group off another. This will be a little rambling, as I’m working through my ideas. That’s why this is on my blog and not formalized and submitted … Continue ReadingPolice Violence and Media Coverage – How Not To Advocate

This is just news from yesterday. SFPD were filmed abusing a man with a prosthetic leg and crutches. Initially, the claim was that he was “waving sticks around like weapons” outside Twitter’s hq. Since that claim has been debunked (notice a lack of sticks in the video), they are now claiming they were “helping” him … Continue ReadingDisability Is Not A Crime – Beating in SF, Trial in NM, Murder in Prison