New Disability Studies Texts Co-Edited by CDHD (ID UCEDD) Associate Director

June 25, 2014

Matthew Wappett, Associate Director at the Center on Disabilities and Human Development and Clinical Associate Professor in the College of Education at the University of Idaho and Katrina Arndt, Associate Professor, St. John Fisher College School of Education have edited two new books that re-examine the foundations of disability studies as a field of scholarly inquiry and introduce emerging new scholars who are building upon those strong roots.

The first book Foundations of Disability Studies includes the contributions of senior scholars in disability studies, many of whom were instrumental in defining and establishing the field. The companion volume, Emerging Perspectives on Disability Studies, contains the work of emerging scholars who are producing insightful work that extends the understanding of disability studies and its applications in interdisciplinary contexts..

Foundations of Disability Studies is a collection of eight essays by scholars who have published extensively within the disability studies literature. This volume honors the scholars who have helped build the field, and represents their latest work and most current thinking. Emerging Perspectives on Disability Studies brings together up-and-coming scholars whose works expand the breadth and scope of disability studies scholarship. This includes new perspectives on disability identity; historical constructions of (dis)ability; the geography of disability; the spiritual nature of disability; governmentality and disability rights; neurodiversity and challenges to medicalized constructions of autism; and questions of citizenship and participation in political and sexual economies. This volume uses disability studies as an innovative framework for its investigation into what it means to be human.

Wappett became involved with disability studies while working on his PhD in Special Education at the University of Utah. Since then he has continued to teach disability studies classes and actively participates in the American Education Research Association's Disability Studies in Education special interest group. This is Wappett's second and third book to be published.

The books are published by Palgrave-MacMillan and available in hardcover and digital through Amazon.