Linton, Simi 1947–

views updated

Linton, Simi 1947–

PERSONAL: Born 1947; married. Education: Columbia University, B.S.; New York University, Ph.D., 1985.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Lescher and Lescher, Ltd., 47 E. 19th St., New York, NY 10003. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Hunter College of the City University of New York, New York, NY, associate professor of psychology, c. 1984–98, and codirector of Disabilities Studies Project. Disability rights activist; president, Disability/Arts. Consultant to theatre companies, arts organizations, museums, and film and television producers.

AWARDS, HONORS: Switzer Distinguished Fellowship, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

WRITINGS:

Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity (nonfiction), New York University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

My Body Politic: A Memoir, University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS: Simi Linton was on her way to protest the Vietnam War in 1971 when she was involved in a car accident that took the lives of her husband and best friend and left her unable to walk. She spent nearly a year in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities. Living in Manhattan in the days before there were laws governing disability access, she struggled to conduct her life as normally as possible. After a move to the West Coast, she discovered the emerging disability-rights movement and began to work for political solutions to the difficulties faced by disabled people. In Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity Linton puts forth the argument that there should be more disability studies in all areas of curriculum. She criticizes the concept of "special education," in which disabled children are segregated, and contemporary practices of "mainstreaming," in which only some disabled children are assimilated into standard classrooms. Commenting on the book in Signs, Rachel Adams noted, "The anger evident in Linton's criticism of current disciplinary and social formations is balanced by her pragmatic account of how and why it is crucial to incorporate disability studies more effectively into the university."

Linton told her own story in My Body Politic: A Memoir. It serves as "a passionate guide to a world many outsiders, and even insiders, find difficult to navigate: the world of the differently-abled," according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer. A Kirkus Reviews contributor described the book as a "wholly enjoyable" work that reveals the author's "crackle, irreverence and intelligence."