Ableism in Academia
Theorising experiences of disabilities and chronic illnesses in higher education
Edited by Nicole Brown and Jennifer Leigh
Ableism in Academia provides an interdisciplinary outlook on ableism that is currently missing. Through reporting research data and exploring personal experiences, the contributors theorise and conceptualise what it means to be/work outside the stereotypical norm. The volume brings together a range of perspectives, including feminism, post-structuralism, such as Derridean and Foucauldian theory, crip theory and disability theory, and draw on the width and breadth of a number of related disciplines. Contributors use technicism, leadership, social justice theories and theories of embodiment to raise awareness and increase understanding of the marginalised; that is those academics who are not perfect. These theories are placed in the context of neoliberal academia, which is distant from the privileged and romanticised versions that exist in the public and internalised imaginations of academics, and used to interrogate aspects of identity, aspects of how disability is performed, and to argue that ableism is not just a disability issue.
This timely collection of chapters will be of interest to researchers in Disability Studies, Higher Education Studies and Sociology, and to those researching the relationship between theory and personal experience across the Social Sciences.
Praise for Ableism in Academia
'Personal and reflective ...All the authors artfully weaved their own experiences with disability into their academic writing in a way that I felt elevated this scholarly collection. This book still left me hopeful. “Collections like this one are necessary to bring into the public consciousness the matters of those who are marginalized” writes Brown in the introduction. I fully agree, and have no doubt this book will contribute to the growing conversation.'
Nature Chemistry
'An enriching source of knowledge regarding the personal experiences and attempts to theoretically conceptualise ableism in academia.'
Alter, European Journal of Disability Research
Canadian Journal of Disability Studies
'readers interested in a broad overview on how ableism plays out in the academic setting as told by disabled academics of different backgrounds will enjoy reading this collection.'
Disability Studies Community Blog
Nicole Brown is Lecturer
in Education and Academic Head of Learning and Teaching at UCL Institute of
Education. Nicole's research interests relate to identity and body work, physical
and material representations and metaphors, the generation of knowledge, and advancing
learning and teaching within higher education. @ncjbrown @FibroIdentity @AbleismAcademia
Jennifer Leigh is Senior
Lecturer at the Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Kent.
She initially trained as a chemist, teacher, and somatic
movement therapist. Her research interests include embodiment, phenomenological
and creative research methods, academic practice, educational development, and
ableism in higher education. @drschniff @AbleismAcademia
List of figures and tables
Introduction: Theorising ableism in academia
Nicole Brown
1. The significance of crashing past gatekeepers of knowledge: Towards full participation of disabled scholars in ableist academic structures
Claudia Gillberg
2. I am not disabled: Difference, ethics, critique and refusal of neoliberal academic selves
Francesca Peruzzo
3. Disclosure in academia: A sensitive issue
Nicole Brown
4. Fibromyalgia and me
Divya Jindal-Snape
5. A practical response to ableism in leadership in UK higher education
Nicola Martin
6. Autoimmune actions in the ableist academy: A crip response
Alice Andrews
7. 'But you don't look disabled': Non-visible disabilities, disclosure and being an 'insider' in disability research and 'other' in the disability movement and academia
Elisabeth Griffiths
8. Invisible disability, unacknowledged diversity
Carla Finesilver, Jennifer Leigh and Nicole Brown
9. Imposter
Jennifer Rode
10. Internalised ableism: Of the political and the personal
Jennifer Leigh and Nicole Brown
11. From the personal to the political: Ableism, activism and academia
Kirstein Rummery
12. The violence of technicism: Ableism as humiliation and degrading treatment
Fiona Kumari Campbell
13. A little bit extra
El Spaeth
Concluding thoughts: Moving forward
Nicole Brown and Jennifer Leigh
Afterword
Jennifer Leigh and Nicole Brown
Index
'Readers interested in a broad overview on how ableism plays out in the academic setting as told by disabled academics of different backgrounds will enjoy reading this collection.'
Disability Studies Community Blog
'Ableism in Academia is a valuable contribution to the literature for anyone looking to understand how ableism is experienced in academic settings, and the systems that allow it to exist and persist.'
Canadian Journal of Disability Studies
'Personal and reflective ...All the authors artfully weaved their own experiences with disability into their academic writing in a way that I felt elevated this scholarly collection. This book still left me hopeful. “Collections like this one are necessary to bring into the public consciousness the matters of those who are marginalized” writes Brown in the introduction. I fully agree, and have no doubt this book will contribute to the growing conversation.'
Nature Chemistry
'An enriching source of knowledge regarding the personal experiences and attempts to theoretically conceptualise ableism in academia.'
Alter, European Journal of Disability Research
Format: Hardback
Size: 234 × 156 mm
262 Pages
3 B&W illustrations
Copyright: © 2020
ISBN: 9781787354999
Publication: October 05, 2020
Related products
Ab Initio Language Teaching in British Higher Education
Drawing extensively on the expertise of teachers of German in universities ac...Brian Simon and the Struggle for Education
This is the first full-length study of the life and career of Brian Simon (19...Early Childhood in the Anglosphere
Written by two leading international experts, Early Childhood in the Anglosph...Family Life in the Time of COVID
COVID-19 turned the world as we knew it upside down, impacting families aroun...