Neglected Identity
by Sharon O'Brien, professor of English and American studies; James Hope Caldwell Professor of American Cultures
I’ve been interested in disability issues for a long time, and I regularly teach a course at Dickinson titled Health, Illness and Narrative, which explores the ways in which American culture can silence people who are ill—and the importance of breaking that silence. Our dominant American values of productivity, individual achievement and self-reliance can—I think—make chronic illness and disability almost “un-American” forms of weakness that deviate from our narrative of self-mastery. As a result, we stigmatize those who deviate from the “able-bodied” norm.
Stigma is often accompanied by shame and silence, so I’m particularly interested in writers and speakers who challenge stigma by telling their stories, and in activists in the disability community whose political resistance brought about the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.
When we think about identity categories in my field, which is American studies, we most often think of race, class, gender, ethnicity and sexualities, and may neglect to think of illness and disability. What the Clarke Forum's faculty seminar on disability is allowing us to do is to place this issue at the center of our field of vision. Of course, we will be thinking about the ways in which people in different groups—such as socioeconomic classes—experience disability, and we will be intersectional in our thinking.
But so much is to be learned from our focus on disability that I think we can integrate back into our classes and into our lives. I know that my teaching is going to be affected by our seminar. There have been many gains for people with disabilities since the ADA was passed, but there is much progress yet to be made. Our seminar is going to help us see what still needs to be done.
Each year, Dickinson faculty study closely one topic that touches on a variety of academic disciplines. That topic inspires the Clarke Forum’s semester-long series of lectures and presentations. Professor O’Brien is co-leading the 2016 faculty seminar, which focuses on disability.