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Writing and Understanding Disability

These papers all grapple with ways that writing — whether fictional writing, non-fictional writing, or the very presence of the written word itself — helps shape our understanding of disability, from the ways anthropologists write about hoarders, to the way Willa Cather writes about facial disfigurement, to the debate about different types of writing for the blind in 19th Century Philadelphia.

Presentations

Hoarding: Anthropological perspectives on creating the self through consumption

Presenters

Christina Cheadle

“To Communicate to Those Blessed with Sight”: Printing for the Blind in 19th-Century Philadelphia

Presenters

Erika Piola

Stuck with the Sur-Face: An Ethical Approach to Facial Disfigurement with an Analysis of Willa Cather’s The Profile

Presenters

Gudrun Maria Grabher Gudrun Maria Grabher

Session chairs

Meredith Guthrie