Monthly Archives: October 2020

What am I reading right now

Reading List:
  • Kerschbaum, Stephanie L., Laura T. Eisenman, and James M. Jones. Negotiating Disability : Disclosure and Higher Education Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2017
  • Evans, Nancy J, Ellen M Broido, Kirsten R Brown, Autumn K Wilke, and Todd K Herriott. Disability in Higher Education: A Social Justice Approach. Disability in Higher Education. Somerset: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017.
I think I have stated before that I am in the very early stages of my next book project.  The working title is  “A Truly Representative Faculty: Disabled Faculty and Multiple Identities.”  The first stage is reading widely. Kerschbaum  was useful. I am just starting Evans, appreciating it both of as an example of how to build a book, and  to be able to report to the publisher how this book is different.  I do recommend both of them.  
 
The plan is to take a couple of years for this one.  The plan is to do a survey and focus groups.  We want to get past the pandemic for this one. 

An important book for academics to read

Gutiérrez y Muhs, Gabriella, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. González, and Angela P. Harris. “Presumed incompetent: The intersections of race and class for women in academia.” University Press of Colorado (2012).

This is an amazing book. It’s quite long, so it took some commitment to finish it. I recommend it for women BIPOC, but I also recommend it for everyone who is interested in the academy. I think I should read the last chapter a couple of times, and consider how I am called to change the world.

There is actually a second volume, but I don’t yet have access to it. If that becomes possible, I am all in.

I read this because I am going to be a new book proposal. The topic is disabled faculty and multiple identities.

A meditation on race, power, and privilege

I have benefited from being white, heterosexual and Christian. I am aware that I have benefited from settler colonialism. I have also benefited from being a second generation academic. When I got my first academic library job I had come home. The idea of privilege was a tremendous shock when I first encountered it. I have, however, accepted it and continue to examine what I can do to break the cycle.

My privileges are nuanced by being disabled. I acknowledge the privilege of being what is called “high functioning.” I have spent my life correcting folks who applaud and suggest that this is due to something I or my parents did right. That is a smack in the face to people who are more heavily impacted by CP. To be upright and a walker is simply the way that I am.

I also acknowledge the gift of writing. Being able to write and publish is rewarded by my profession. I need to acknowledge that it is a gift and I am not a better person than someone who struggles to write.

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