Disability History and State Formation

In this presentation I will look at the ways in which disability history -­‐-­‐ and more specifically the lived experience of people considered disabled -­‐-­‐ can inform our discussion of state formation. We often think of state formation as a “top-­‐down” process in which leaders affect change through the formulation of policy and various legal codes. But historians of state formation know all too well that the creation of various state institutions, rules, and regulations, and laws delimiting the boundaries of citizenship is often a messy and complicated process. Using the history of institutionalization and incarceration in the United States, I will show how disability both as an analytic and as lived experience proves invaluable when engaging in “bottom up” histories of state formation.