An Introduction to Disability History

Beth Linker, University of Pennsylvania; Kim E. Nieslen, University of Toledo; Rabia Belt, Stanford Law School; moderated by Naomi Rogers, Yale School of Medicine

This conversation will aim to orient us in the field of disability history and serve to lay the groundwork for subsequent conversations in this series. How is disability used as an analytical tool in historical inquiry? Why is it important to center disability as a defining social category, like race, class, gender, and sexuality? How have definitions of disability varied through history, and what have been the social and cultural impacts of this shifting understanding? This conversation will present a brief history of the field and examine the foundational and emerging scholarship through a moderated, roundtable discussion with our panelists.