From the Daily Utah Chronicle (University of Utah’s independent student publication):

In a recent lecture at the University of Utah, Emory professor Rosemarie Garland-Thompson challenged her audience to decode public images of disability and analyze the cultural messages embedded within them. Her remarks were part of the university’s first annual Disability Studies Forum.

Among the images Garland-Thomson displayed were photographs of conjoined twin slaves, a paraplegic Playboy model, a Barbie doll that uses a wheelchair, and contemporary portraiture. She discussed how different techniques, such as posing in a different way, could give the subject of the portrait dignity, value and recognition.

“Images of people with disabilities are out in the world. I read images for the stories that are in them,” Garland-Thompson said.

… “Disability is a new way about thinking about difference, and we’ve talked a lot in the university community about issues of gender, race and class,” said Nadja Durbach, a history professor at the U. “Now we’re starting to talk about disability, and I think it’s a great way to think about how cultures organize difference in society. I think disability is kind of the wave of the future.”

Garland-Thomson is the author of Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 15th, 2008 at 2:29 pm and is filed under arts/music, cultural attitudes, disabilities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post