Comment from the Field

Abstract

National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) held its annual conference meeting November 7-10,2013. conference this year was called Negotiating Points of Encounter and included sub-themes the sacred and profane, borders and margins, futures of feminist past, politics, and practices of effecting change. While presence of disability studies and attention to accessibility within organization has been slowly increasing for several years, this year was one of strongest showings of disability studies work on panels both explicitly related to disability and not. Part of this increased presence is due to both sub-theme of politics and work of newly re-formed Disability Studies Interest Group, headed by Sarah Smith Rainey and Petra Kuppers since 2orz, which sponsored both a panel and an Author Meets Critic session at conference.There were four panels explicitly formed around issues of disability. At Disruptive Disabilities panel, Ryan Perry talked about moments when we encounter disability and how at times these encounters do not make sense, resulting in instances of disorientation that can change way we relate to world and our own embodiment. Elizabeth Schewe presented on represen- tation of obsessive-compulsive disorder and masculinity in television series Monk. Finally, Maricela DeMiriyn argued that disability is made an invisible part of Frida Kahlo's subjectivity in scholarship on her, despite fact that Kahlo maintained a pluralistic sense of her identity, as a disabled, queer woman of color, especially in her portraits.At Disability Studies Interest Group-sponsored panel Encountering Scientific Knowledge: Science Studies Meets Disability Studies, Merri Lisa Johnson presented neologism cripistemologies of ignorance to discuss how presence of existing knowledge about borderline personality disorder obscures nonsensationalistic lived experience of this disability, a point she demonstrated by examining two characters in television show Grey's Anatomy. Aimi Hamraie's paper applied feminist new materialisms to history of universal design, discussing limits of metaphoric uses of universal design and explaining more of its historical material basis in architectural measurements prior to 1970 based on body measurement statistics from non-disabled men in military. Finally, Kelly Fritsch engaged Jasbir Puar's critique of disability studies and her terms debility and capacity, asking question: Can we mobilize disability in a way that avoids pitfalls Puar identifies? Fritsch contended that rather than being a thing, disability is a doing, an intercorporeal enactment, a cut based on particular materialities.The other two panels were Feminist Cripistemologies, featuring Brenda Brueggemann, Beth Ferri, and Kelly Fritsch, and Negotiating Margins of Body Politic: Toward a Theory of Disability Studies Methodology, with Ally Day, Aimi Hamraie, Kate Caldwell, and myself. In addition to these disability studies-focused panels, other sessions included work on disability, including Sarah Rizzuto's paper and Romantic Fove: Insight into Disability Experience Through Poetry, Rachael Shockey's paper The Politics of Sexual Objectification: Rethinking Material Bodies in Building a Disability Studies, and Ayla Engelhart's poster The Social Contract Revisited: Implications in Black Feminism, Critical Race Theory, and Disability Theory.The most prominent disability studies event on expansive conference schedule was Author Meets Critics session on Alison Kafer's Feminist, Queer, Crip (2013). Author Meets Critics sessions are a fairly recent development in NWSA's conference structure. These events are not exclusive on schedule like plenary and keynote events (other panels occur during Author Meets Critics sessions); however, they are prominently featured in conference program and are highly competitive for acceptance. …