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Events Symposium at Cornell
“Disability Studies and the Realist Theory of Identity”
Michael Hames-García (English, Binghamton University)
Speakers in these two panels will address the intersection between disability studies and the realist theory of identity, using a set of core texts as the jumping-off point. Some questions concern: disability embodiment as an effect of the real; the role of experience in theories of identity; the advantages and disadvantages of social construction as a theory of disability; and activist and advocacy concerns shared by disability studies and realist philosophy.
An analysis of the philosophical realist tradition and how it might serve to redefine the current poststructuralist critique of identity. It engages Judith Butler’s formulation of identity by offering an alternative understanding of identity as a realist narrative from which political positions might emerge. Brown, Wendy. “Wounded Attachments.” States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1995. Pp. 52-76. A critique of identity as a “wounded attachment” and an appeal to shift our concept of identity from what we are to what we want, thus moving from identity to political action. Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. “Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory.” National Women’s Studies Association Journal 14.3 (Fall 2002): 1-32. A four part definition of feminist disability studies, theorizing the relation between femininity and disability as socially constructed identities and systems. The rubrics discussed are body, representation, identity, and activism. Johnson, Harriet McBryde. “Unspeakable Conversations.” The New York Times Magazine, 16 February 2003. (p. 50-55, 74, 78-79. An essay showing how Johnson’s experience as a disabled person counters mainstream beliefs about quality of life. It also asks us to explore the definition of the human. Moya, Paula M. L. “Postmodernism, ‘Realism,’ and the Politics of Identity: Cherríe Moraga and Chicana Feminism.” Reclaiming Identity: Realist Theory and the Predicament of Postmodernism. Ed. Paula Moya and Michael Hames-García. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. Pp .67-101. Proposes a realist theory of Chicana identity as a critique of the poststructuralist rejection of identity categories. Postmodernism,"Realism"and the Politics of Identity Sandahl, Carrie. “Black Man, Blind Man: Disability Identity Politics and Performance.” Theatre Journal 56 (2004): 579-602. Makes an argument for identity politics based on disability in the context of performance theory, using realist ideas about identity. Siebers, Tobin. “Disability in Theory: From Social Constructionism to the New Realism of the Body.” American Literary History 13.4 (2001): 737-54. Description of weak and strong versions of social constructionism relative to a realist view of the disabled body as a living entity that changes representation.
Explores the ways in which allegations of disability and impairment have been used to marginalize other minority groups, illuminating how these groups have had to deflect and reject these allegations as a means of confronting oppression, stigma, and prejudice. The essay avoids a "hierarchy" of forms of oppression, although it tends to trigger discussions in this vein anyway. The most important conversation the essay tends to trigger is how different groups can move forward in coalition given the ways in which groups have been pitted against one another in the past. Brown, Wendy. “Postmodern Exposures, Feminist Hesitations.” States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1995. Pp. 30-51. Discusses feminist hesitations about postmodern theories of the subject and politics. Johnson, Harriet McBryde. “Not Dead at All: Why Congress Was Right to Stick Up for Terri Schiavo.” Slate, 23 March 2005. Url: slate.msn.com/id/2115208/ An essay on Terri Schiavo, discussing the stakes for people with disabilities in conversations about prenatal screening/selective abortion, euthanasia, and physician assisted suicide. These issues are pressing for the disability community right now and serve as a "litmus" test for potential breaking points in coalitions between this community and many progressives and liberals who might otherwise be allies of the disability community. Weisman, Leslie Kanes. “Creating the Universally Designed City: Prospects for the New Century.” Universal Design Handbook. New York: McGraw Hill, 2001. Pp. 69.1-69.18. A manifesto about universal design, describing both disability and
the disabling effects of the environment relative to other minority
categories. Is the concept of universal design useful to the realist
project?
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