Call for Abstracts Deadline: November 30, 2005

Special Issue: Disability Studies Quarterly

Tentatively scheduled Fall 2006

Guest Editor: Elaine Gerber

Harlan Hahn jokes in Vital Signs (1997) that if there is a disability culture, there must be a disability food... and disability food is Fast Food. Yet, formal studies on eating and food remain under-explored within Disability Studies. At the same time, food studies within the academy and the larger culture are increasing -- both as the "obesity epidemic" has propelled the issue into the limelight and because being a "gourmand" has become a new marker of class status. This CFP operates from the assumption that biologically we all need to eat, but that it is culture which assigns meaning to those actions. Food, therefore, can serve as an entry point for understanding local social and cultural institutions, as well as global systems, that shape disabling experiences. This special issue of DSQ seeks cultural analyses, social research, and theoretical perspectives which explore food issues within the context of disability studies.

Commentary and Reviews of books & films are also welcome.

Issue tentatively scheduled for Fall 2006.

Please send abstracts of at least 500 words (for planning purposes only)

by: November 30, 2005. Full papers are due April 30, 2006, and will be peer reviewed.