Discourses on Disability

Discourses on Disability bridges academic and personal voices from India to address the diverse and fluid conversations on disability. It seeks to critically engage with the concept of being dis/abled, attempting to deconstruct ableism while advocating for inclusive politics. Narratives from people with bipolar disorder, autism, and locomotor disabilities serve to examine how it feels to exist in a world conditioned by deep-seated cultural taboos about disability. The chapters in this book show how India still has a systemic silence about people with disabilities.

Anju Sosan George (PhD) is a member of the faculty at CMS College, Kottayam, Kerala, India. It is one of the oldest higher education institutions in the country with an illustrious history of more than 200 years. George is the Founding Director of the Centre for Disability Studies at the college, which is doing pioneering work in both academic and extension fields. Her edited book Disability Studies: A Bibliography (2022) has drawn global attention and she is regularly invited to deliver lectures in Disability Studies. In addition to research related to autism that George is passionate about, she enjoys theatre and poetry and has authored an anthology of poems titled Woes of a Working Woman (2015). She is currently an Associate at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla.

“This book will provide an interesting and readable account of disability studies in India. Through a variety of texts both scholarly and personal, the reader will learn about the diversity within the field including many current and engaging theoretical approaches as well as practical overviews of blindness, Deafness, mobility impairments, chronic illnesses, mental disabilities, among others. Keeping the focus on India, the book has broad implications for disability studies around the world.”
Dr. Lennard Davis Distinguished Professor, Department of Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois, Chicago

“A truly pioneering work of Disability Studies”
Prof G Thomas Couser
Professor of English Emeritus and Founding Director of Disability Studies Program, Hofstra University

“Some of the most exciting work in disability studies has resulted from the global turn in the field. Discourses on Disability is part of this important moment and will be one of the most significant anthologies introducing readers everywhere to the important and field-shifting work emerging from India.”
Prof Robert McRuer
Professor of English, George Washington University

Poulami Aich Mukherjee

Sruthylacshmi B. Bhat

Habeeb C.

Sayoojya C.S

Sharada Devi V.

Gena Fazel

Dashrath Gatt

Anju Sosan George

Wilbur Gonsalves

Miby Miriam Jacob

Betty Elsa Jacob

Sneha Jacob