New Books Network Podcast

Disability Studies September 14, 2022

Disability Rights and Religious Liberty in Education

The Story Behind Zobrest V. Catalina Foothills School District

Bruce J. Dierenfield and David A. Gerber

Hosted by Shu Wan

In 1988, Sandi and Larry Zobrest sued a suburban Tucson, Arizona, school district that had denied their hearing-impaired son a taxpayer-funded interpreter in his Roman Catholic high school. The Catalina …

Disability Studies September 9, 2022

The Life Worth Living

Disability, Pain, and Morality

Joel Michael Reynolds

Hosted by Autumn Wilke

The Life Worth Living: Disability, Pain, and Morality (U Minnesota Press, 2022) investigates the exclusion of and discrimination against disabled people across the history of Western moral philosophy. Building on …

Disability Studies August 5, 2022

Elusive Kinship

Disability and Human Rights in Postcolonial Literature

Christopher Krentz

Hosted by Autumn Wilke

Dr. Christopher Krentz is an Associate Professor at the University of Virginia, where he has a joint appointment with the departments of English and American Sign Language. He is also …

Film July 8, 2022

Making The Best Years of Our Lives

The Hollywood Classic That Inspired a Nation

Alison Macor

Hosted by Joel Tscherne

Released in 1946, The Best Years of Our Lives became an immediate success. Life magazine called it “the first big, good movie of the post-war era” to tackle the “veterans …

Disability Studies June 17, 2022

Intelligent Love

The Story of Clara Park, Her Autistic Daughter, and the Myth of the Refrigerator Mother

Marga Vicedo

Hosted by Galina Limorenko

In the early 1960s, Massachusetts writer and homemaker Clara Park and her husband took their 3-year-old daughter, Jessy, to a specialist after noticing that she avoided connection with others. Following …

Disability Studies June 16, 2022

All Our Families

Disability Lineage and the Future of Kinship

Jennifer Natalya Fink

Hosted by Galina Limorenko

Disability is often described as a tragedy, a crisis, or an aberration, though 1 in 5 people worldwide have a disability. Why is this common human experience rendered exceptional? In …

Disability Studies June 10, 2022

Food Allergy Advocacy

Parenting and the Politics of Care

Danya Glabau

Hosted by Autumn Wilke

A detailed exploration of parents' fight for a safe environment for their kids, interrogating how race, class, and gender shape health advocacy The success of food allergy activism in highlighting …

Critical Theory May 17, 2022

Diminished Faculties

A Political Phenomenology of Impairment

Jonathan Sterne

Hosted by Gummo Clare

Diminished Faculties: A Political Phenomenology of Impairment (Duke UP, 2022) begins by calling into question a fundamental principle of orthodox phenomenology (and, for that matter, a great deal of humanities …

Public Policy April 22, 2022

The Fundamental Institution

Poverty, Social Welfare, and Agriculture in American Poor Farms

Megan Birk

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

By the early 1900s, the poor farm had become a ubiquitous part of America's social welfare system. Megan Birk's history of this foundational but forgotten institution focuses on the connection …

Grinnell College: Authors and Artists April 15, 2022

A Conversation with Autumn Wilke about Disability in Higher Education

Autumn Wilke

Hosted by Marshall Poe

Today I talked to Autumn Wilke of Grinnell College about her book (co-authored with Nancy J. Evans, Ellen M. Broido, and Kirsten R. Brown) Disability in Higher Education: A Social Justice Approach (Jossey-Bass, 2017) …

Historical Materialism March 23, 2022

Able to Lead

Disablement, Radicalism, and the Political Life of E. T. Kingsley

Ravi Malhotra and Benjamin Isitt

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman

People with disabilities have always struggled to make ends meet. Finding a job you can actually do, a housing situation you can afford that meets your needs, and simply …

Law February 25, 2022

A New Era for Mental Health Law and Policy

Supported Decision-Making and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Piers Gooding

Hosted by Jane Richards

This book cuts new ground by applying a human rights lens of analysis to domestic mental health laws. It makes a timely contribution into the discourse regarding mental health, supported …

Law February 23, 2022

Neurodisability and the Criminal Justice System

Comparative and Therapeutic Responses

Gaye T. Lansdell, Bernadette J. Saunders, and Anna Eriksson

Hosted by Jane Richards

Neurodisability and the Criminal Justice System: Comparative and Therapeutic Responses (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021) delves into an under-researched and little understood but extremely pertinent issue in law; the prevalence of neurodisability within …

Medicine February 9, 2022

Dangerous Medicine

The Story Behind Human Experiments with Hepatitis

Sydney A. Halpern

Hosted by Claire Clark

From 1942 through 1972, American biomedical researchers deliberately infected people with hepatitis. Government-sponsored researchers were attempting to discover the basic features of the disease and the viruses causing it, and …

Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight December 23, 2021

What to Say Next

Successful Communication in Work, Life, and Love with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Sarah and Larry Nannery

Hosted by Dan Hill

Today I talked to Sarah and Larry Nannery about their new book What to Say Next: Successful Communication in Work, Life, and Love with Autism Spectrum Disorder (Tiller Press, 2021). What’s it …

Education December 2, 2021

Pain and Shock in America

Politics, Advocacy, and the Controversial Treatment of People with Disabilities

Jan Nisbet and Nancy Weiss

Hosted by Christina Bosch

Amid a string of fall 2021 news reports about past-due exonerations and (white) self-defense that document the limits of racial justice within the U.S. legal system, Pain and Shock in …

Education November 22, 2021

Ableism

The Causes and Consequences of Disability Prejudice

Michelle R. Nario-Redmond

Hosted by Christina Bosch

Of the dozens of juicy questions for future inquiry that Dr. Michelle Nario-Redmond provides at the end of Ableism: The Causes and Consequences of Disability Prejudice (Published by Wiley in …

Anthropology November 18, 2021

Worlds of Care

The Emotional Lives of Fathers Caring for Children with Disabilities

Aaron J. Jackson

Hosted by Alize Arıcan

Vulnerable narratives of fatherhood are few and far between; rarer still is an ethnography that delves into the practical and emotional realities of intensive caregiving. Grounded in the intimate everyday …

Gender Studies November 12, 2021

Sexual Citizenship and Disability

Understanding Sexual Support in Policy, Practice and Theory

Julia Bahner

Hosted by Sohini Chatterjee

What does ‘sexual citizenship’ mean in practice for people with mobility impairments who may need professional support to engage in sexual activity? Sexual Citizenship and Disability: Understanding Sexual Support in …

Gender Studies October 15, 2021

The Political Economy of Stigma

HIV, Memoir, Medicine, and Crip Positionalities

Allyson Day

Hosted by Sohini Chatterjee

In The Political Economy of Stigma: HIV, Memoir, Medicine, and Crip Positionalities (Ohio State UP, 2021), Ally Day offers a compelling critique of neoliberal medical practices in the US by coupling …