The AWP and Disability Inclusion

BY STEPHEN KUUSISTO The writer Quintan Anna Wikswo has written an “Open Letter to the AWP Regarding Disability Rights” which you can read here: http://bumblemoth.com/open-letter-to-awp-regarding-disability-rights/ If you’re not an academic writer—a poet, novelist, short fiction writer, playwright, or non-fictionist who makes her living teaching you might not be aware of the AWP, more comprehensively known…

Disability in the Academy (an ongoing dialogue)

Francis Bacon wrote that people with disability develop to be “extreme bold” as a habit born of their need to defend themselves from the “scorn” of others. No doubt much has changed in the years since Bacon opined on the matter, but Stephen Kuusisto writes, in “Extreme Bold in the Faculty Ranks,” that students and…

Access in the Academy

In the September-October issue of Academe, Stephanie L. Kerschbaum writes that administrators and other leaders can take positive steps to help ensure access for all faculty, before specific needs arise. For example, braille nameplates next to all offices can be the norm, so that faculty who need them will feel included from the start. Kerschbaum also points…

Higher Education News Round-Up

Former Northwestern professor David Protess writes a column at Huffington Post about a court’s ruling that requires Northwestern to reveal to the government “private communications between the students (and sometimes me) that included requests for references, breaking news about dead grandmothers and plans to meet for drinks.” Protess defends advocacy journalism, and concludes: “At stake…