🧵NEW GROWING THREAD ALERT 🧵

As disability history expands into new global regions (outside US and Western Europe), we at the DHA are beginning a small project to highlight works that introduce us to disability in those regions. Each week, we will be linking a book, article, or chapter on disability history and studies in the non-West! These posts are being curated by prior and current DHA board members @WTan_Historian and @jiya_pandya and DHA intern @Tulikaa_, based on a longer syllabus Wayne compiled.

Thread:
1/n
Today is #NationalDogDay!
Time to re-examine the roles dogs have played in #DisHist!
For centuries, artists have shown dogs accompanying blind subjects, performers & beggars across the world, suggesting that dogs lived/worked alongside disabled handlers. 2/n
Medieval European texts show figures that might possibly be blind holding a staff & the lead of a dog. As per @NinonDubourg, dogs were not considered reliable or safe in theory, but they were likely used as companions and fellow performers while begging.
#DisHist #envhist

Thread:
The best kind of #DisHist is that of the everyday.
In 2014, @bbcouch researched the story of Duncan McKenzie and Nesta Holgate, a deaf British couple whose 1940 wedding featured in a British Pathé video.
1/n 2/n

'Everyone at the wedding is both deaf and dumb and they all converse in sign language.'
This is the video of the wedding, shot in 1940 and showing several shots of the wedding party, happy, excited and signing.
#DisHist #DeafHistory

britishpathe.com/video/deaf-and…

Thread:
1.
What does disability offer as a category of historical analysis? Why does #DisHist matter?
Here is an eg:
Born in Sardinia, Antonio Gramsci (1891–
1937) lived with physical disability, possibly due to Pott's disease (image not of him).../ 2.
His mother held to the idea that he was disabled after a fall down a flight of stairs which she blamed on a servant. The young Gramsci lived with chronic pain, and his condition may have impacted his growth as well.
#DisHist #DisabilityHistory #histmed

Thread:
1.
‘Public schools were closed to me because of my wheelchair, and special schools were closed to me because I was black”
The Mar 1970 edition of Performance mag. profiled the polio survivor and disabled artist & teacher Juanita Cotton.
#DisHist #DisabilityTooWhite 2.
Born in Oklahoma, Juanita was educated at home & graduated high school at 20. Her counselor refused to support her studying art in college. He “tried to find a reason why I couldn’t go to college” & sent her to a psychiatrist for wanting to study art. She persisted.
#DisHist

1.
Medieval Japanese guilds (za) offered spaces for belonging & institutional support for the blind. Todo-za claimed links to ancient emperors, aristocratic families, & incarnations of deities for authority/legitimacy. Not all of the blind enrolled in the toda-za/
#DisHist 2.
When a blind person wished to enter the todo-za, they usually became the apprentice of a local member. The acolyte then shaved their head & was known as the shoshin (beginner). They then paid their dues to the todo-za and received a certificate of membership & a rank/
#DisHist

Thread:

Today is #NationalDogDay! Lets examine what roles our 4-legged friends have played in #DisHist!
Artistic representations of dogs accompanying #blind singers, beggars etc from across the world suggests that they have often worked and lived alongside #disabled handlers..1/ In this #earlymodern illustration of the Dance of Death, Death cuts the rope that links the blind man and his dog: “I cut you off from your guide.”
The blind man responds, saying, “I cannot take a step without my dog (hund).”
#DisHist #NationalDogDay..2/