That disability is at once a question of the body and a question of the built environment makes it a central subject for the humanities-and for the social and natural sciences, and thus for new forms of cross-disciplinary study.
Michael Berube
Disability Studies in the Humanities (2002: 342)

 

Linda Ware joined the faculty in the Ella Cline School of Education at SUNY Geneseo (2006). She teaches courses in Curriculum, Women's Studies, an Interdepartmental Writing Seminar titled, Disability in America and recently offered an experimental course, Interdisciplinary Disability Studies (INTD 288).  She was formerly on the faculty at City College/City University of New York (CUNY) where she served as the program head for Special Education and held an appointment on the CUNY Graduate Faculty in Urban Education.

She is recognized internationally for her research and scholarship in the field of Disability Studies-an interdisciplinary field of academic inquiry that is defined and refined by scholarship that interrogates ableism-the assumed privilege afforded to non-disabled people. She has published widely in humanities, education, and social science journals, and authored numerous book chapters on disability and education. Her edited volume, Ideology and the Politics of InExclusion (2004) appeared in the series, "Studies in the Postmodern Theory of Education" edited by Joe L. Kincheloe and Shirley R. Steinberg (Peter Lang Publishers). The book provides a critical exploration of inclusion in international contexts to reveal the myriad ways that educational inclusion is enacted in policy and practice as Exclusion.

Dr. Ware brings to her teaching a broad set of experiences informed by disability studies. This academic area of inquiry invites understanding about disability as more than a biological condition and as such merits understanding beyond the professions that have thus far authored exclusively medicalized interpretations located within psychiatry, psychology and medicine. Awareness of disability as more than a medical/biological event rooted to pathology located within the individual enables Disability Studies to theorize and to confirm how society shapes the meaning of disability. This inquiry reveals how institutions-and schools in particular-discredit and dismiss disability lived experience as inherently less worthy.

Photos from bottom my distinguished guard dog; one of the daring duo who shared  KU grad school years; my bold and spirited son, and our City College CUNY "Wave of the Future" poster in recognition of our revised Master's program in special education/disability studies.