Jeff Brune, Ph.DBROWN BAG: "What Every Historian Should Know about Disability History (and What They Lose by Ignoring the Field)." Mon. Feb. 28, 12-1pm, Smith 203E

PUBLIC LECTURE: "Blind Like Me: John Howard Griffin, Disability, and the Fluidity of Identity in Modern America." Tues. Mar. 1. 6-7:30pm, Odegaard 220 Series Web Site "http://uwdisability.wordpress.com/"

This talk explores intersections of disability, race, gender, and sexuality in the life and work of John Howard Griffin, author of Black Like Me, and how these offer opportunities to alter fundamental assumptions about identity in modern America. Jeffrey Brune is Assistant Professor of History at Gallaudet University and in 2011-2012 will serve as a postdoctoral fellow at Syracuse University’s Center on Human Policy, Law, and Disability Studies. After completing his dissertation at the University of Washington in cultural history, three years ago he shifted his focus to the history of disability and is currently working on two books. His new monograph project, which has received an early contract from Cambridge University Press, is Disability Stigma and the Modern American State. It examines how government disability programs heightened fears of malingering (fear of faking or exaggerating a disability), affected the treatment of disabled people, and increased the stigma of disability. He argues that this trend, ironically, has only worsened as disability policy has shifted toward civil rights during the past forty years. He is also co-editing an anthology, Blurring the Lines: Disability, Race, Gender and Passing in Modern America.

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