We are delighted to count over thirty members (faculty and graduate students) across disciplines in the Humanities and Fine Arts as well as Education and the Social Sciences. Here are the short profiles of some of our members. [This page is under construction]
Hannah Garibaldi is a PhD candidate in Film and Media Studies. Her research interests include the intersection of Hollywood censorship and color filmmaking in the 1930s-50s, the establishment of accessibility standards in current cinematic exhibition, and the influence of physical illness, injury, and disability on historical Hollywood film productions.
Stephanie Goldstein is a co-founder of the Disability Studies Initiative and a third English year doctoral student. She researches the transmission of medieval medical narratives on the Silk Road between the 9th and 12th centuries. Co-convener & Social Media Co-Coordinator, Disability Studies Initiative, 2020-2022.
Isidro González is a doctoral student in History, working at the intersection of race, disability, mental illness, and science in U.S. history. He explores the rise and continuation of eugenics at the nexus of medicine, social science, and culture in the Mexico-U.S. borderlands. Co-convener, Disability Studies Initiative, 2020-on.
Elizabeth Guffey was a Visiting Scholar at the IHC in 2021-22 and is Professor of Art and Design History at SUNY, Purchase College. Recent books include *Making Disability Modern* (co-edited with Bess Williamson, 2020) and *Designing Disability* (Bloomsbury, 2018). Her writings on disability culture have appeared in a number of range of publications, including *The New York Times* and *The Nation*. Co-convener & Blogger, Disability Studies Initiative, 2021-2022; DSI Mentor, 2021-on.
Olivia Henderson is a second year PhD student in the department of English. She is interested in 16th- and 17th-century English literature (particularly drama), neurodiversity, and the intersections between disability studies and ecocriticism. Olivia is a project manager at the English Broadside Ballad Archive. Social Media Co-Coordinator, Disability Studies Initiative, 2021-on. She became Co-convener, Disability Studies Initiative, 2022-on.
Rachel Lambert is Assistant Professor in Special Education and Mathematics Education, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, UC Santa Barbara. Her work investigates the intersections between Disability Studies in Education and mathematics education. Co-convener, Disability Studies Initiative, 2021-on.
Shanna Killeen is a doctoral student in comparative literature specializing in disability studies and queer studies with a particular focus on aromanticism as well as the intersections of queerness, disability, and neurodiversity. Their work focuses on aesthetics and questions surrounding voice, visibility, and erasure. Co-convener, Disability Studies Initiative, 2020-on.
Yun-chen Lu is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History of Art and Architecture. Her dissertation, “A Left-Turn to Artistic Eccentricity: Gao Fenghan (1683–1749) and Disability Art in Eighteenth-century Yangzhou,” investigates the relationship between the trend of artistic eccentricity and artists with disabilities and explores the development of disability art and aesthetics in Qing China.
Catherine Nesci is Professor of Comparative Literature & French Studies. Her current research deals with literary urban studies and fieldwork literature, memorial studies as well as disability and care in literature. Manager & Co-convener, Disability Studies Initiative, 2020-on.
Ramsha Usman is a third year PhD student in the department of Anthropology. Her research interests are disability, labor, industries, occupational health and risk, care, orthopedics, and South Asia.
Hangping Xu is Assistant Professor of Modern Chinese Cultural Studies and, by affiliation, of Comparative Literature at UCSB. He is completing a book manuscript titled *Broken Bodies as Agents: Disability Aesthetics and Politics in Modern Chinese Culture*. For his work on transnational disability studies, he received the Honorable Mention for the Irving K. Zola Award from the Society for Disability Studies. Co-convener, Disability Studies Initiative, 2020-21.