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Signs of Disability

Signs of Disability
Stephanie Kerschbaum, a white woman with short brown hair, smiles broadly as she sits on some steps at the University of Washington campus. Her left elbow is on her knee and her right hand rests on her left wrist in a relaxed posture. Photo credit: Danielle Barnum. 

By Stephanie L. Kerschbaum

Hey everyone! I'm creeped out at the thought this year is halfway over. Where did the time go? I'm not ready for winter! On a brighter note, I'm happy to offer 5 paperback copies of Signs of Disability by Stephanie L. Kerschbaum from NYU Press.  Details below.

The cover of Signs of Disability by Stephanie L. Kerschbaum features a billboard with white text on a black background that reads 'Words Shape Reality" with long arrows and lines stretching between the words. Behind the billboard is a wide two-story hotel and cars parked in the hotel parking lot. Designed by deaf artist Christine Sun Kim, the billboard was placed in Jefferson City, Missouri as part of a "50 State Initiative" sponsored by For Freedoms (forfreedoms.org). The author's name, "STEPHANIE L. KERSCHBAUM" is in the top left of the book cover in a medium-size all-caps sans serif font and the book title "SIGNS OF DISABILITY" is in a large white squiggly font that resonates with the billboard writing. Photo courtesy the artist and FOR FREEDOMS collective. Designed by adam b. bohannon.

About the book

How can we learn to notice the signs of disability?

We see indications of disability everywhere: yellow diamond-shaped “deaf person in area” road signs, the telltale shapes of hearing aids, or white-tipped canes sweeping across footpaths. But even though the signs are ubiquitous, Stephanie L. Kerschbaum argues that disability may still not be perceived due to a process she terms “dis-attention.”

To tell better stories of disability, this multidisciplinary work turns to rhetoric, communications, sociology, and phenomenology to understand the processes by which the material world becomes sensory input that then passes through perceptual apparatuses to materialize phenomena—including disability. By adding perception to the understanding of disability’s materialization, Kerschbaum significantly expands our understanding of disability, accounting for its fluctuations and transformations in the semiotics of everyday life.

Drawing on a set of thirty-three research interviews focused on disabled faculty members’ experiences with disability disclosure, as well as written narratives by disabled people, this book argues for the materiality of narrative, suggesting narratives as a means by which people enact boundaries around phenomena and determine their properties. Signs of Disability offers strategies and practices for challenging problematic and pervasive forms of “dis-attention” and proposes a new theoretical model for understanding disability in social, rhetorical, and material settings.

About the author

Stephanie Kerschbaum, a white woman with short brown hair, smiles broadly as she sits on some steps at the University of Washington campus. Her left elbow is on her knee and her right hand rests on her left wrist in a relaxed posture. Photo credit: Danielle Barnum. 

Stephanie L. Kerschbaum is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Washington and author of Toward a New Rhetoric of Difference.

Details

1) Any disabled person in the US is eligible for this giveaway. 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) The first 5 people will receive a paperback. 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 ‘Stephanie Kerschbaum 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!

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Published by:

Alice Wong

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