Disability Arts and Culture : Methods and Approaches

A practical, accessible introduction to the study of disability art and culture around the world.

What does it mean to approach disability-focused cultural production and consumption as generative sites of meaning-making? Disability Arts and Culture seeks the answer to this question and more in an exploration of disability studies within the arts and beyond. In this collection, international scholars and practitioners use ethnographic and participatory action research approaches alongside textual and discourse analysis to discover how disability figures into our contemporary world. Chapters explore deaf theater productions, representations of disability on screen, community engagement projects, disabled bodies in dance, and more, in a comprehensive overview of disability studies that will benefit both practitioner and scholar.

Petra Kuppers is a disability culture activist, community performance artist, and professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She leads the Olimpias, an international performance research collective.