Critical Geographical Disability Studies: Counternarratives of the Pulled Out and Put Back In

• In Event: 47.083 - Performing Dissertation Research and Liberating Academic Writing

Abstract

The researcher creatively engages in studying and writing about critical disability studies in conjecture with critical geography. She explores how border crossing and the creation of third space are a necessary part of life for those who have an invisible disability and how vulnerability is revealed in the crossing and creation within these spaces. The study of disability, though an underrepresented one, has long been a topic of inquiry in the field of education. Disability naturally lends itself to the field of geography due to the notion of accommodations and the need to change and manipulate space to meet the need of the disability and move within the fabric of society. All space has been manipulated in one way or another. To manipulate is to change because the earth is a living organism that changes organically. Drawing upon the work of critical disability theorists and critical geography theorists and creating fictional composite autobiographical stories, the researcher explores how space, the creation of space, is intertwined with critical disabilities studies. She examines the power relationship between place, space, and disability. She critically examines what spaces have been created for learning disabled individuals and how those spaces have been manipulated either by others or by the disabled themselves. She also explores how disabled individuals cross various borders including disability exile, social assimilation, and integration to thrive in the midst of adversities and challenges.

Author

• Kristen Denney, South Effingham High School