Disability Studies and the Environmental Humanities

Although scholars in the environmental humanities have been exploring the dichotomy between "wild" and "built" environmentsfor several years,few have focused on the field of disability studies,a discipline that enliststhe contingency between environments and bodies as a foundation of its scholarship. On the other hand, scholars in disability studieshave demonstrated the ways in which the built environment privileges some bodies and minds over others, yet theyhave rarelyexaminedthe ways in which toxic environments engenderchronic illness and disability or how environmental illnesses disrupt dominant paradigms for scrutinizing "disability." Designed as a reader for undergraduate and graduate courses, Disability Studies and the Environmental Humanities employs interdisciplinary perspectives to examine such issues as slow violence, imperialism, race, toxicity, eco-sickness, the body in environmental justice, ableism, and other topics. With a historical scope spanning the seventeenth century to the present, this collection not only presents the foundational documents informing this intersection of fields but also showcases the most current work, making it an indispensable reference.