New Disability Studies Texts

Co-edited By CDhD Associate Director

Matthew Wappett, associate director at the Center on Disabilities and Human Development and clinical associate professor in the College of Education and Katrina Arndt, associate professor St. John Fisher College School of Education, have edited two new books that re-examine the foundations of disability studies as a field of scholarly inquiry and introduce emerging new scholars who are building upon those strong roots.

The first book, “Foundations of Disability Studies,” includes the contributions of senior scholars in disability studies, many of whom were instrumental in defining and establishing the field. The companion volume, “Emerging Perspectives on Disability Studies,” contains the work of emerging scholars who are producing insightful work that extends the understanding of disability studies and its applications in interdisciplinary contexts.

“Foundations of Disability Studies” is a collection of eight essays by scholars who have published extensively within the disability studies literature. This volume honors the scholars who have helped build the field, and represents their latest work and most current thinking. “Emerging Perspectives on Disability Studies” brings together up-andcoming scholars whose works expand the breadth and scope of disability studies scholarship. This includes new perspectives on disability identity; historical constructions of (dis)ability; the geography of disability; the spiritual nature of disability; governmentality and disability rights; neurodiversity and challenges to medicalized constructions of autism; and questions of citizenship and participation in political and sexual economies. This volume uses disability studies as an innovative framework for its investigation into what it means to be human.

Wappett became involved with disability studies while working on his doctorate degree in special education at the University of Utah. Since then, he has continued to teach disability studies classes and actively participates in the American Education Research Association’s Disability Studies in Education special interest group. These are Wappett’s second and third books to be published.

CDHD has hired the following staff:

Ellen Radcliffe, Idaho Stars Senior Advisor

Tessa Trow, web coordinator

Karen Loeffelman, web coordinator

Nicholas Stallings, program technician

Teresa Stockwell, Idaho Stars Adviser

The Center for ETHICS at the University of Idaho offers study, intervention, outreach, consultation and leadership in developing and advancing the theory, knowledge and understanding of character education including moral and ethical reasoning, moral development, ethical leadership and ethical application. The center, through Director Sharon K. Stoll, professor of physical education, provides classes, workshops, applied interventions, evaluations, assessments and consultation about character education and all its perspectives to any organization, profession, industry and discipline.

The center continues its work with Winning with Character, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sport education, which serves 55 high schools and three universities, working in character education in sports across the United States. The center is contracted to develop curriculum and evaluation tools and assessments for the intervention program of WWC.

Stoll and the center staff completed preliminary and final data for an online education program for the World Anti Doping Agency through a grant with the University of Iowa. WADA is an independent international organization created in 1999 to promote, coordinate and monitor the fight against doping in sport in all its forms. Composed and funded equally by the sports movement and the governments of the world, WADA coordinated the development and implementation of the World Anti Doping Code, a document harmonizing anti-doping policies in all sports and all countries.

Stoll was a featured speaker at the Lewiston City Library on ethics as it pertains to sports and particularly women’s sports. The library collaborated with Lewis Clark Center for Arts and History on a Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit called “Hometown Teams.” Stoll participated as a part of the library’s focus on women’s athletics during the time the exhibit was in Lewiston.

TRiO has added the following staff:

Erick Brynestad, program specialist

Maribel Padron, program specialist

Jade Payne, program specialist

Megan Bircher-Craviotto, program specialist

Reyna Quiroz, program coordinator

STEM Access Upward Bound participated in the Idaho FIRST Tech Challenge with their robotics team. Throughout the fall and spring semesters, STEM Access participants in the Lewis-Clark Valley met to design and construct their robot. The robot had to be ready to drive without remote for the first 30 seconds, pick up cubes and deliver them into baskets. The robot was programmed by the students. The STEM Access robot successfully collected and delivered cubes until the last competition.

Silver Valley Upward Bound and Educational Talent Search have seen such a successful collaboration that the programs are now referred to TRiO Inspire North. The collaboration has resulted in a number of projects:

• More than 50 students traveled to Portland, Ore., for a field trip with the theme of “Green Energy.” They stopped to view the inside of a wind turbine, toured several universities and visited with the mayor’s office during a tour of city hall about Portland’s green initiatives.

• Students read and discussed the book “Ship Breaker” by Paolo Bacigalupi, which culminated in the three-day sail on the 100-year-old schooner, Adventuress, during a field trip to Western Washington.