Session Abstract

This panel examines stories typically ‘displaced’ in American history.  Centering our analyses on the lives of disabled people, contested spaces, and notions of belonging invites new questions about the role of conceptions of space in the formation of personal and public narratives; we also explore how these lived experiences intersect with broader social ideas of authority and individual value. In addition, these projects critically consider issues of race, gender, and class, complicating traditional representations of America’s disability community. Through analyses of dramatized celebrations of valor and sacrifice, removals and institutionalization, and place-based consciousness-raising, this panel offers diverse perspectives on the actors and spaces that have defined—and redefined—categories of who counts as a citizen.

The presentation by Susan Burch (Middlebury College), "Histories Removed:  Reflections on the Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians,” draws on “removed histories” of three inmates from the Hiawatha Asylum (1902-1934), a federal psychiatric hospital for American Indians located in South Dakota. Centering on stories “from the inside” of institutions complicates traditional interpretations of removals, community, and place in history.

John M. Kinder (Oklahoma State University) examines White House garden parties for disabled veterans in the decades following World War I in his presenttion, “Wheelchairs on the Lawn: White House Garden Parties and the Visual Production of Disabled Veterans.”  Drawing heavily upon visual sources, he examines such parties as contested spaces, where both White House image-makers and veterans themselves sought to define disabled veterans’ place within postwar American society.

In her work, "Spaces of Inclusion and Exclusion in the Making of Disability Rights Activists, 1950-1973," Lindsey Patterson (Ohio State University) highlights the importance of local rehabilitation centers and summer camps in the formation of disability rights consciousness and activist networks.  Charting these developments through five case studies along three geographic axes, this study examines the role of built environments, access, exclusion, and community in the formation of disability rights activism. 

Kim Nielsen (U. Wisconsin—Green Bay) will serve as chair and commenter.