The Disability Studies Reader

“This timely new edition by Davis and Sanchez captures a number of established and, crucially, emerging perspectives in US disability studies. The text constitutes a new key reading for students and researchers alike.”

Dan Goodley, Professor of Disability Studies and Education, University of Sheffield

“The 6th edition of this ever-evolving and student-friendly text demonstrates the fluidity, complexity, engagements, and energies of both the past and present critical study of disability. New sections on 'key ideas,' 'disability and social policy' and a focus section on 'neurodivergence' sparkle uniquely for this newest edition of what has always been a fundamental text in the field of Disability Studies (for 23 years, since 1997). Like all other editions before it, this one has thoughtful and provocative changes that also then illustrate the unfolding and expanding nature of critical work in our understandings and explorations—both current and historical—of disability and complex embodiment.”

Brenda Jo Brueggemann, Aetna Endowed Chair of Writing, University of Connecticut, Co-editor, Disability Studies Quarterly

“The addition for the first time of a co-editor, Deaf and disability studies scholar Rebecca Sanchez, marks the 6th edition as a truly new generation for The Disability Studies Reader. More BIPOC and activist authors, more interdisciplinary and global in scope—this is the edition you want to have on your shelf. A new opening section surveys key ideas in the field, making the Reader more teachable than ever and underscoring that disability studies has arrived.”

Mara Mills, Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication and Co-director, NYU Center for Disability Studies

“The breadth and depth in this brand-new edition of The Disability Studies Reader offers foundational grounding for approaching the study of disability while at every turn insisting on disability’s imbrication with race, gender, sexuality, geopolitical movements, and socioeconomic class.”

Stephanie L. Kerschbaum, Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Delaware

“Now in its 6th edition, The Disability Studies Reader is simultaneously viewed as a dynamic standard-bearer for the field of disability studies and a snapshot of what is happening in the field now. This edition, edited by Lennard Davis and new co-editor Rebecca Sanchez, continues the tradition. The inclusion of more contributions featuring intersectional analysis on disability and race, gender, sexuality, as well as chapters focusing on structural inequities, such as decarceration, makes this new edition a must for disability scholars and campus library collections. Additionally, the section focusing on neurodiversity is an especially compelling and excellent introduction to this area of disability studies for those who are less familiar with this topic. Most importantly, in this time of pandemic and social change, the 6th edition of The Disability Studies Reader functions as a helpful guide to those of us thinking about the future of disability studies education and advocacy.”

Teresa Blankmeyer Burke, Professor of Philosophy, Gallaudet University