Readings on the history of quarantine, contagious disease, viruses, infections, and epidemics offer important context for the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. From JSTOR: “Last week, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. In an effort to slow the spread of the disease, schools and universities across the world have transitioned […]
Buying Ableism and Shit During the Pandemic
On social media, on TV, in the mainstream press, etc. endless reports have appeared about people “hoarding” toilet paper, getting into physical altercations in Costco stores over packages of toilet paper, searching for hours online to purchase toilet paper, driving around their deserted cities to find a package, and so on. I’ve also seen a […]
Back on the Anti-Ableist Hobby Horse Again
Question: What do Licia Carlson, Andy Clark, Leslie Francis, Sara Goering, Chris Kaposy, Serene Khader, Eva Kittay, Will Kymlicka, Monique Lanoix, Joel Reynolds, Cynthia Stark, and Jonathan Wolff have in common? Answer: All of them are nondisabled philosophers whose careers have been advanced with publications on disability. None of them has a disabled philosopher of […]
The Fallacy of the Good Philosopher-Activist
Julinna Oxley’s article “How to Be a Good Philosopher-Activist” is the focus of a post over at Daily Nous. I hadn’t previously read Oxley’s article, so I’m glad that it’s showcased on the Daily Nous blog. Although I read the article quickly, I derived from doing so the impression that it’s timely, instructive, and provocative. […]
Structural Gaslighting, Racism in Canada, and Ableism in Philosophy
During the past week, I’ve worked on my presentation for the upcoming philoSOPHIA 2020 conference at Vanderbilt University. As I indicated in an earlier post, I decided not to attend the conference in person due to the air travel that my doing so would require. I’ve chosen instead to participate in the equally exciting Speciesism […]
Bioethics (and) MAID in Canada
Bioethicists in Canada (and elsewhere) have played a significant role in the formulation and implementation of legislation that has steadily expanded the scope of what counts as acceptable with respect to medically-assisted death, that is, which medically-assisted deaths should be regarded as acceptable to the Canadian public, whose deaths, and why. Some of these (and […]
The Unbearable Confidence of the Racialized Apparatus of Disability
“First and foremost, I aim to issue a caution . . . When addressing and identifying forms of epistemic oppression one needs to endeavor not to perpetuate epistemic oppression.” – Kristie Dotson (2012, 24) Several months ago, the moderator of the Teaching Disability Studies Facebook group, a group that had operated for several years, announced […]
The Costs of Flying: An Intersectional Analysis (Guest Post)
Guest Post By Michelle Ciurria Professors, especially senior, wealthy, white men, should fly less for work. In this post, I will argue that professors should fly less for work in order to reduce their carbon footprint. And I will argue that senior, wealthy, white, male professors should curb their flight-related carbon emissions the most because […]
Reconfiguring Values: A Riposte to Agnes Callard
In Foucault and Feminist Philosophy of Disability, I argue that disability is a complex and complicated apparatus of power rather than a personal property, attribute, or difference, as assumed on the individualized and medicalized conceptions of disability that most philosophers (including most philosophers of disability) hold. In order to make this argument, I employ Foucault’s […]
Remembering Disabled People on the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz
The sterilization and extermination of disabled people by the Nazis during the Second World War are often overlooked in remembrances of the Holocaust. Indeed, although many disabled people died in Auschwitz and other camps, thousands of disabled people were sterilized and murdered before the establishment of the camps, as disabled author Kenny Fries, among others, […]
BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 