Disability Studies: An Interdisciplinary Introduction

What if disability isn′t a problem but a resource? This updated edition of a classic text in the field of disability studies interrogates the commonly held view that disability is something that needs to be ′cured′ or ′eradicated′. It shows us how disability can challenge our thinking and help us to imagine a more socially just society, offering an engaging introduction to a diverse and globally expanding subject. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this text will be of interest to undergraduates, graduates, and researchers across the social sciences. Making the case that disability is much more than just impairment, this book uncovers the ways in which disabled people are challenging discrimination and marginalisation. Ranging across topics such as health, activism and education, this book asks questions about the ways in which society tends to understand disability and offers alternative explanations that are more exciting, radical and transformative.

Dan Goodley is Professor of Disability Studies and Education at the University of Sheffield and co-director of iHuman: an interdisciplinary institute for the study of the human. Previously he has worked at the University of Leeds and Manchester Metropolitan University. He has published numerous books and articles associated with critical disability studies including Self-advocacy in the Lives of People with learning disabilities (Open University Press, 2000), Disability Studies (Routledge, 2016, second edition), Disability Studies (Sage, 2014) and Disability and Other Human Questions (Emerald, 2020). He is currently the principal investigator on a major six year pan-national programme of disability, health and science research, funded by a Wellcome Trust Discretionary Award entitled Disability Matters (2023 - 2029). He is an avid fan of Nottingham Forest football club, cake, sewing and Sleaford Mods (possibly in that order).