Disability History in the Middle East

Sara Scalenghe is an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland Loyola, USA. She is the author of Disability in the Ottoman Arab World, 1500-1800 (2014)and the History section co-editor of Handbook of Disability: Critical Thought and Social Change in a Globalizing World (2023). A recent President of the Disability History Association, Scalenghe directed the 2018 NEH Summer Institute for faculty "Global Histories of Disability."Beverly Tsacoyianis is an Associate Professor at the University of Memphis, USA. She wrote the 2022 CHOICE Academic Title Award-winning Disturbing Spirits: Mental Health, Trauma, and Treatment in Modern Syria and Lebanon (2021).

• Ch. 1 – Introduction: Disability in the Making of the Modern Middle East, by Sara Scalenghe, Loyola University Maryland, USA, and Beverly Tsacoyianis, The University of Memphis, USACh. 2 – Blindness, Poverty, and Social Control in Late Ottoman Istanbul (1845-1914), by Irem Yildiz, The University of Oxford, UK Ch. 3 – Modern Prosthetics in Late Ottoman Society, by Elif Küskü, Istanbul Technical University, TürkiyeCh. 4 – Reading Resistance and Agency Through 19th Century Citizen Petitions” by Yasmin Shafei, American University in Beirut, Lebanon Ch. 5 – Who Belongs in a Jewish Homeland: Disability, Gender, and Zionism in the Yishuv (1880-1947), by Sarah Imhoff, Indiana University Bloomington, USA Ch. 6 – Disability and Employment in Colonized Algeria, 1900s-1940s, by Gildas Brégain, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France Ch. 7 – Contesting the Politics of British Prosthetic Care: Pain, Nativeness, and the Plight of Palestinian Jewish Amputees in WWII, by Marco di Giulio, Franklin & Marshall College, USA Ch. 8 – Between History and Memory: 21st – Century Literary Portrayals of Disability in 1940s and 1950s Palestine and Israel, by Beverly Tsacoyianis, University of Memphis, USACh. 9 – Disabling Effects of Anger in Iran (1941-1951), by Saghar Bozorgi, University of Texas at Austin, USA Ch. 10 – Portraying Disability in Refugeedom: Palestinian Refugees with Disabilities through UNRWA Photographs and Videos, 1950s-1980s, by Maria Chiara Rioli, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, ItalyCh. 11 – Piecing Together the Life of an Iranian Woman Political Prisoner: Defetishizing the Production of Madness and Disability through State Violence, by Sona Kazemi, University of Wisconsin – La Cross, USA, and Efrat Gold, University at Buffalo, USA

This is a powerful and necessary contribution to the field of Disability Studies. An absolutely necessary read for anyone interested in the Middle East. Only now can we claim that Disability Studies is inclusive, with the emergence of this volume.