Culture, Disability, Theory - Encounters Between Disability Studies and Cultural Studies

University of Cologne, October 25 – 27, 2012

In Cooperation with the English Seminar of the University of Cologne, Institute for American Literature and Culture, Prof. Hanjo Berressem.

Disability Studies conceptualizes disability as a social and cultural construction that can be traced throughout a multiplicity of cultural practices. Cultural Studies, however, has yet to fully incorporate disability as an object of inquiry and a framework for critical analyses. A continuing dialogue between Disability Studies and Cultural Studies paves the way for insightful resonances and demonstrates ways to critically consider the conceptual pair of normalcy and disability with respect to strategies of cultural interpretation and production.

The systematic understanding of disability as ‘naturalized construction’ promises insights not only for those who are currently subsumed under the label ‘disabled.’ How is cultural knowledge about embodiment and subjectivity produced, transformed and reinforced? What are the political consequences for an analysis of ‘disability’ that arise from a critique of neoliberal mechanisms of differentiation and exclusion? How are individual and social identities, self-conceptions, and body-images (trans-)formed through the reflection of cultural representation? Which theoretical frameworks of contemporary cultural criticism can be employed to rethink disability in terms of an affirmative conceptualization of socio-cultural difference?

This conference brings together scholars who are working at the interface of Disability Studies and Cultural Studies. Presentations will be complemented with comments by researchers and graduate students of, among others, sociology, literature, art history and philosophy based at the University of Cologne. The conference will address the multitude of possible overlaps between both disciplines and aims to contribute to the thriving discourse of ‘Cultural Disability Studies.’

Confirmed keynote speakers are:
•Dr Ria Cheyne, Liverpool Hope University
•Professor Lennard Davis, University of Illinois, Chicago
•Professor Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Emory University, Atlanta
•Professor Dan Goodley, Manchester Metropolitan University
•Katerina Kolarova Ph.D., Charles University, Prague
•Professor Robert McRuer, George Washington University, Washington DC
•Professor Nicholas Mirzoeff, University of New York, NYC
•Dr Heike Raab, University of Innsbruck
•Professor Margrit Shildrick, Linköping University
•Professor Tobin Siebers, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

There is no conference fee, but registration is necessary (until October 10, 2012). Please fill out the registration form. For any other inquiries send an email to the conference organizers.

Poetry Collection and Launch: After All Tomorrow's After Parties

A good friend of mine, Michael Wilson, has asked me to mention his upcoming collection of poetry - After All Tomorrow's After Parties - which is being launched this Monday (4th October) in Manchester.

My book launch will be on Monday October 4th. I'll be reading from my first book "After All Tomorrows After Parties" brought out by Knives Forks and Spoons Press as well as a selection of other poems. I'll also be performing a number of poems using sign language to promote disability awareness, create a second narrative and meddle with the 4th wall. It promises to be a top evening of poetry with sets from the cream of Manchester poetry: the nationally renowned names of Gerry Potter, Tony Walsh and John G Hall and sweet acoustic jazz from Rob Plow and Steve Brady that sounds like music to fall in love to. It all takes place at the lovely Fuel Bar Cafe in Withington M20 4AN. It starts 8pm until 11pm and it's a free event.

The book will be available from October 4th from the Knives Forks and Spoons Press website, and Amazon or ordered from any bookshop in the UK or available from myself at various gigs in the North West and beyond.

I've found my home in Manchester and have been performing poetry for over five years now and guest slots at various events for about four years. Material comes from the tried and trusty subjects of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' dole but also extends to politics and mental health. I'm interested in raising awareness of disability so learned sign language and have been successful in slams, getting to the BBC Radio Four National Slam Final last year, as well as the Cheltenham National Slam Final the last two years running. I also combine poetry with art using lost property umbrellas to write my poetry onto in interesting designs, usually leaving them in city centres for people to find but also having them exhibited in Contact Theatre this year. Finally I am also part of the Islington Mill Art Academy, a self run, self organised art education group, which explores alternatives in art education, which this book is being brought out in association with.

The book as well as being brought out in association with the Art Academy is also being brought out in memory of a close friend of mine who died ten years ago, just as I was finishing my university degree. I thought it was important to keep his memory alive and this is my small part in this. This book has been given the blessing of the family.

And here's a sample of the poetry to be found in After All Tomorrow's After Parties:

An Ode to Autumn

So,
Deep down in yourself
Deep down in your coat
The autumn falls before your eyes
Smoke perspires from car exhausts
And the street sounds silent in your head
Watching the traffic find its way,
from safe inside the hem of a hood
The unlit cigarette burns a hole in your hand
As you take the world in,
A stage set street at a time

Now,
Your thoughts are wrapped up in pretty paper
Round numbers and letters and how they fit their clothing
In the wooliness of your mind
You had to train yourself to doublething
A single line when added to
Creates a picture you can just make out
In the dark horse sky
A sky that maps this world
All true invention pushed underfoot
The leaves
And all the deadness of past summer
Crushed underfoot

Then,
You hear a beating memory in your head
That from your past autumn never means you harm
The curled blur of street lights
Match the fuzziness in your logic
Walks with you
An elegant procession of thoughts that play to beat the band
A foresight that this winter won't bite too hard
Cause it knows its own mortality
A backlit sight that summer leaves a mark or two on your skin,
but won't do what it's told, it won't change your life,
this time around.

So,
You walk
Back to your home the rest of the world in front
The street smells of everything and nothing at once
While the moon makes its once sightly appearance
A smile like benevolent stupidity
A smile like a patriarch not a sister
A father for you to figure out your thoughts
And for this moment your happiness won't get away
The day comes back to you
In the soft grip of night
That Autumn holds its lover lightly
As it lets the summer leave you
Feeds you and clothes you in your own colours
The halfway secret shine of Autumn is held in the single change of a skin

Copyright 2010, Michael Wilson