DisHuman

What does it mean to be human in the 21st Century and in what ways does disability enhance these meanings? What might it mean to be ‘dishuman’? 

This intellectual project led by researchers in iHuman seeks to address these questions, and contests deep-rooted stereotypes of the archetypal human and neoliberal citizen. Our collective brings in findings and themes from active and past research projects in order to centre disability in theoretical discussions of the human.

Our DisHuman manifesto:

• Unpacks and troubles dominant notions of what it means to be human;

• Celebrates the disruptive potential of disability to trouble these dominant notions;

• Acknowledges that being recognise as a regular normal human being is desirable, especially for those people who been denied access to the category of the human;

• Recognises disability’s intersectional relationship with other identities that have been considered less than human (associated with class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, age);

• Aims to develop theory, research, art and activism that push at the boundaries of what it means to be human and disabled;

• Keeps in mind the pernicious and stifling impacts of ableism, which we define as a discriminatory processes that idealize a narrow version of humanness and reject more diverse forms of humanity;

• Seeks to promote transdisciplinary forms of empirical and theoretical enquiry that breaks disciplinary orthodoxies, dominances and boundaries;

• Foregrounds dis/ability as the complex for interrogating oppression and furthering a posthuman politics of affirmation

 

References

Goodley D, Lawthom, R & Runswick-Cole, K. (2014) Posthuman disability studies. Subjectivity, 7(4), 342-361.

Goodley, D., Lawthom, R., Liddiard, K. and Runswick-Cole, K. (2018a). Posthuman disability and DisHuman studies. In R. Braidotti and M. Hlavajova. (Eds). Posthuman Glossary. London: Bloomsbury (p342-345).

Goodley, D., Lawthom, R., Liddiard, K., and Runswick-Cole, K. (2018b) A Dishuman Manifesto, by ProjectDisHuman. In Garland-Thompson, R., Kent, M., Ellis, K. and Robertson, R. (eds.) Manifestos for the Future of Critical Disability Studies. Routledge: Oxon