The last few days I’ve been at a conference on Medieval Materiality. For those not familiar, there’s a lot of talk in my field of the “material turn,” in which questions about material culture and object-related analyses (of many sorts) are becoming more central, where once they were quite peripheral. Among the many things that…
Nico in a swimming pool, holding onto a tube, swimming and laughing. This is my son swimming at a party this summer. He’s never happier than when he’s in the pool, using his body, feeling the water, playing and filled with joy. So, finally, my wife and I signed him up for swimming lessons with…
There’s a new piece up in The Guardian on the vilification of people with disabilities as “scroungers” in the current conservative UK speech and beyond. The author, Aditya Chakrabortty, argues that this discursive move not only helps justify cuts in services, but also leads to violence. The coalition has so thoroughly vilified “scroungers” that hate crimes…
I’ve written about Sara Hendren and her mantra – “All Technology is Assistive Technology” before – both in my review of John Scalzi’s recent book (which is basically about assistive tech) and on the blog. Hendren has a new piece over on Medium’s Backchannel exploring her mantra with 6 rules on design and assistive tech. Please…
It’s been busy. I got book proofs on Thursday for Sacred Plunder: Venice and the Aftermath of the Fourth Crusade. That means that my writing will not so much stop, but will become erratic and not as predictable daily until proofs are done. Unless, you know, I get really pissed off about something. In the…
In January 2012, three off-duty deputies killed a man with Down syndrome over the price of a movie ticket. Now, a civil lawsuit over Ethan Saylor’s death is allowed to continue, as ruled by Judge William Nickerson, and reported here in the Washington Post. If you are new to #JusticeForEthan, I have a few links…
At the end of September I wrote a post about the arbitrary decision to end the NEH overseas summer seminars and institutes. It’s packed with comments from people whose lives and careers were transformed by such programs. Now I have a piece at Chronicle Vitae on my findings. They are: The NEH denies political pressure. The NEH…
My son is cute. Sometimes painfully so. He also has a kind of intensity to his love. Here’s a story from my newest piece at Al Jazeera America (please read it and share it so they publish more pieces on disability!). At the end of every day, Nico walks into the kitchen, wraps his arms…
Throughout the intense debates on Steven Salaita, I clung to one message: If you do not stand on principle for people with whom you disagree, you have no principles. It was no problem generating support for Salaita’s case (note, not Salaita, the case) for people who agreed with his critique of Israel, the challenge was…
I write a mostly monthly column for the Chronicle of Higher Education. I’m interested in the way that both individual academics and institutions engage with issues and spread their expertise in the public sphere. My columns look at what people do and how it works within an academic career. Recent columns are: Sustained Public Engagement…