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Sophonisba Breckinridge Brown Bag Discussion Series What are the intersections between feminist theory and disability studies? How have scholars and disability and women’s rights activists radically critiqued traditional “discourses of deficiency?” How can disability studies, viewed through a feminist lens—or feminism viewed through a disability lens—provide a fresh analysis of gender, race, class, and other forms of normativity? What are problematic gaps that remain between theory and practice? Jane Addams greatly admired radical social critic Randolph Bourne. Bourne, who was physically disabled, wrote widely on issues including immigration and progressive education, and was a leading dissenter to U.S. involvement in World War I. His 1917 pacifist essay “War and the Intellectuals” was reprinted by Addams for the Women’s Peace Party. Bourne’s only writing on disability was “The Handicapped,” published in 1911 in Atlantic Monthly and later revised and retitled “The Philosophy of Handicap” for his book Youth and Life. Bourne, one of the first writers to examine disability as a social construct, grounds his radical perspective in his experience of “handicap.” Suggested readings: “The Handicapped” by Randolph Bourne: http://www.randolphbourne.columbia.edu/the_handicapped.pdf “‘A Philosophy of Handicap’: The Origins of Randolph Bourne’s Radicalism” by Paul K. Longmore and Paul Steven Miller: Hypatia, Fall 2001: Feminism and Disability: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/hypatia/toc/hyp16.4.html Reservations are recommended. Please call 312.413.5353. Series Description The Sophonisba Breckinridge Brown Bag Discussion Series seeks to provide a new kind of space for the UIC community to come together for open dialogue about contemporary social and scholarly issues. Distinct from the classroom or public forum, the discussion series will create an alternative space for engaged scholarship on campus. We invite you to bring your lunch and join us for a series of spirited conversations in the historic Residents’ Dining Hall, where Jane Addams and other Hull-House residents discussed and debated the critical issues of their day and conspired for a more just and peaceful world. Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge (1866-1948) was a social reformer, social work educator, and resident of the Hull-House Settlement. Breckinridge received a Ph.D. in political science and a J.D. degree from the University of Chicago, and was the first woman admitted to the Kentucky bar. With her friend and fellow Hull-House resident Edith Abbott, Breckinridge cofounded the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration, where she taught for many years. Believing that academic and field work were mutually informative, Breckinridge both published theoretical studies on social welfare and was active in the campaigns for peace, women’s suffrage, racial equality, immigrants’ rights, fair housing, and fair labor laws. |
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