Article ID: CBB215368674

The Supercrip in the Lab: Seeking Disabled Scientists in the History of Science (2024)

unapi

First coined by disabled people in the 1970s, the term supercrip calls attention to the ways disability is often spun into sentimental narratives consumed as inspirational by the nondisabled. Recent scholars, however, have begun to call attention to the fact that disabled people may not experience supercrip narratives as inherently problematic and they have called for a more careful exploration of the term. This chapter takes up this call by examining the supercrip in the lives of disabled scientists. It argues that throughout much of the twentieth century, disabled scientists embraced supercrip narratives, wielding them as powerful tools for self-advocacy and community building. At the same time, this chapter shows how the supercrip strategy relied upon the persistence of exclusionary and ableist assumptions about meritocracy in American science.

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Article Mara Mills; Jaipreet Virdi; Sarah F. Rose (2024) Disability, Epistemology, Sciencing. Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 1-24). unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB215368674/

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Authors & Contributors
Mills, Mara C.
Sarah F. Rose
Bouk, Daniel B.
Hogan, Andrew J.
Linker, Beth
Pinch, Adela
Journals
Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Journal of Social History
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Publishers
University of Michigan
Brandeis University Press
Cornell University Press
Duke University Press
Johns Hopkins University Press
University of California Press
Concepts
Disabilities; disability; accessibility
Disability studies
Ableism
History of science, as a discipline
Human body
Epidemics
People
Francis of Assisi
Hollerith, Herman
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
20th century, early
21st century
20th century, late
16th century
Places
United States
Great Britain
California (U.S.)
Soviet Union
Massachusetts (U.S.)
Pennsylvania (U.S.)
Institutions
National Institute of Health (U.S.)
Chinese Academy of Sciences
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