‘Dis/ability Studies proposes a new dialectic in which the twins disability and ability – separated at birth – are re-united in a confrontation whereby the alienated siblings come to terms with their distinctive experiences; one, comfortable in the lap of privilege; the other, mired, deep down amongst the wretched of the earth. Professor Goodley breaks new ground and re-sets the template for the disability debate.’ – Professor Bill Hughes, Glasgow School for Business and Society, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK.
‘"Dis/ability studies" is a remarkable synthesis of the most distinctive strands of Goodley’s thought, and yet, expands current scholarly thinking. Goodley offers a clear signal for a change of direction, if not a revolution, in disability thought.’ – Dr Karen Soldatic, School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Australia.
‘With radical vitality, Dan Goodley’s latest invites us to inhabit the slash between able/disabled in order to re-encounter the constitution of the human. Exposing the "normal’s" confused engagement with dis/ability, readers are offered a transformative praxis opposing ideals of ableism while respecting our desire to thrive in disability-as-life. Goodley addresses the often unquestioned and deadly normative demands of our "austere" times as a way to work toward what he takes as the heart of being human, namely, alliance, connections and interdependence. In the midst of disability studies, queer and post-colonial theory, Goodley invites us to imagine politics as the actualization of a committed interrelatedness affirming life that has been made marginal by stark neo-liberal practices that feed markets trading in degradation. Critical of rigid models, this book is an essential read and a rallying cry for anyone who desires to put the question of embodiment into the heart of what it means to be human.’ – Professor Tanya Titchkosky, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada.
‘With both the rigor and wit that marks all of his work, Dan Goodley maps the landscape of contemporary critical disability studies in his comprehensive new book. Dis/ability Studies: Theorising Disablism and Ableism, moreover, makes clear to readers the urgent and innovative directions in which disability studies needs to move. This book is not only an invaluable resource surveying the models of disability that structure (and can transform) our culture, it is—in its attention to a global austerity politics and the workings of what Goodley terms neoliberal-ableism—an important part of the global turn that the interdisciplinary field is taking. Through stories of oppression and resistance in multiple locations, Dis/ability Studies ultimately welcomes critically disabled "becomings" that can dismantle the structures of ableism that Goodley theorises.’ – Professor Robert McRuer, Department of English, George Washington University, USA.
