3 min read

How to be Disabled in a Pandemic

How to be Disabled in a Pandemic
A light blue surgical face mask on a black background. A message printed in red on the fabric reads, How to be Disabled in a Pandemic. The editors' names are printed in white in the bottom right hand corner of the book cover: Mara Mills, Harris Kornstein, Faye Ginsburg, Rayna Rapp

This is a topic close to my heart. So many people talk about the pandemic in past tense and this is simply not true. Immunocompromised and high risk people have been sharing their wisdom about masking and staying as safe as possible for the last five years in a world where we are considered disposable. I'm delighted to offer 5 paperback copies of How to be Disabled in a Pandemic edited by Mara Mills, Harris Kornstein, Faye Ginsburg, and Rayna Rapp. Details below.

A light blue surgical face mask on a black background. A message printed in red on the fabric reads, How to be Disabled in a Pandemic. The editors' names are printed in white in the bottom right hand corner of the book cover: Mara Mills, Harris Kornstein, Faye Ginsburg, Rayna Rapp. Image credit: Brothers Sick. Book jacket design: adam bohannon. Image credit: Brothers Sick. Book jacket design: adam bohannon

About the book

How to Be Disabled in a Pandemic documents the pivotal experiences of disabled people living in an early epicenter of COVID-19: New York City. Among those hardest hit by the pandemic, disability communities across the five boroughs have been disproportionately impacted by city and national policies, work and housing conditions, stigma, racism, and violence—as much as by the virus itself. Disabled and chronically-ill activists have protested plans for medical rationing and refuted the eugenic logic of mainstream politicians and journalists who “reassure” audiences that only older people and those with disabilities continue to die from COVID-19. At the same time, as exemplified by the viral hashtag #DisabledPeopleToldYou, disability expertise has become widely recognized in practices such as accessible remote work and education, quarantine, and distributed networks of support and mutual aid. This edited volume charts the legacies of this “mass disabling event” for uncertain viral futures, exploring the dialectic between disproportionate risk and the creativity of a disability justice response.

How to Be Disabled in a Pandemic includes contributions by wide-ranging disability scholars, writers, and activists whose research and lived experiences chronicle the pandemic’s impacts in prisons, migrant detention centers, Chinatown senior centers, hospitals in Queens and the Bronx, subways, schools, housing shelters, social media, and other locations of public and private life. By focusing on New York City over the course of three years, the book reveals key themes of the pandemic, including hierarchies of disability "vulnerability," the deployment of disability as a tool of population management, and innovative crip pandemic cultural production. How to Be Disabled in a Pandemic honors those lost, as well as those who survived, by calling for just policies and caring infrastructures, not only in times of crisis but for the long haul.

About the editors

Mara Mills is Associate Professor in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. Mills is cofounder of the NYU Center for Disability Studies and coeditor of Crip Authorship: Disability as Method.
Harris Kornstein is Assistant Professor of Public and Applied Humanities at the University of Arizona. They have published research and essays in Surveillance & Society, Curriculum Inquiry, Wired, and others.
Faye Ginsburg is Kriser Professor of Anthropology at New York University. Ginsberg is cofounder of the NYU Center for Disability Studies and author of Contested Lives: The Abortion Debate in an American Community and coauthor of Disability Worlds.
Rayna Rapp is Professor Emerita in the Department of Anthropology at New York University, and the author of Testing Women, Testing the Fetus: The Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America and coauthor of Disability Worlds.

Details

1) Any disabled person in the US is eligible to receive a paperback. You do not need to disclose any details about your disability.

If you already received a book from one of my previous giveaways, please consider letting other people have a chance.

2) If you do not receive a reply that means the books have been claimed or you did not include all the required information.

3) Send an email to DisabilityVisibilityProject@gmail.com with 'How to be Disabled in a Pandemic Giveaway’ in the title of the message. Do not reply to this post!!

4) Include the following information in your message:

  • First and last name
  • Mailing address

Please note: I will send this information along with your email address to the publisher. They are responsible for confirming your details and sending you the book. Please be patient!