Disability History
MUP are thrilled to announce the newest additions to our Disability History series editorial team, Dr Coreen McGuire and Dr Aparna Nair.
“I am absolutely delighted to be joining the disability history series team at MUP. This series means a lot to me; it is where I published my first book and where many of the most important books for the field have been published. David Turner and Daniel Blackie’s Disability in the Industrial Revolution, Heather Perry’s Recycling the Disabled, and Marion Andrea Schmidt’s Eradicating deafness? genetics, pathology, and diversity in twentieth-century America are specific favourites that continue to influence my thinking and research.
I’m excited about working with a great team and about commissioning new work at the cutting edge of disability history, especially research that sits at the intersection between disability history, history of science, and science and technology studies.” – Dr. Coreen McGuire
Coreen McGuire is a historian of interwar Britain doing interdisciplinary research at the nexus between disability history, medical history, and science and technology studies. She completed her PhD on the measurement of hearing loss in the British Telephone System at the University of Leeds in the Centre for History and Philosophy of Science. Following this, she took up a postdoctoral position at the University of Bristol and developed research on the historical measurement of respiratory disability as part of the Life of Breath project, a Wellcome funded project which was led jointly by Bristol and Durham.
Aparna Nair is Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough, at the Department for Health and Society/Center for Global Disability Studies. From 2015 to the end of 2022, she worked as Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma-Norman, in the History of Science department. Her upcoming book “Fungible Bodies” (2024) with the University of Illinois Press’ Disability Histories examines the relationship between disability and colonialism in British India. Professor Nair also works on the histories of technologies for disabled people (vision aids, hearing aids, prosthetics, etc); the histories of vaccination and quarantine in India; the material histories of vaccination (specifically the history of the vaccination certificate); and also work on the changing representations of disability and difference in popular culture. She also builds exhibits as part of her public history/humanities work.
About the series
The concept of disability is fiercely debated both as a social construct and as an analytical framework. Much like race, gender, and class, disability plays a crucial role in shaping individual identities. Disability history, a multifaceted field, thrives on diverse perspectives to fully grasp its intricate nature.
Our Disability History series advocates for an interdisciplinary approach to history, merging cultural, social, material, political, and intellectual strands. This encompasses explorations into imperialism, medicine, science, technology, body politics, and sexuality, among other disciplines.
Browse all of our Disability History titles here.
We are actively looking for new work on disability history that encompasses issues including class, race, gender, age, identity, sexuality, embodiment, emotions, the senses, war, medical treatment, professionalisation, environments, work, empire, education institutions and cultural and social aspects of disablement including representations of disabled people in literature, film, art and the media.
We would love to hear your proposals and ideas. Please get in touch with our Senior Commissioning Editor [email protected] to find out more.