Dwarfism Arts and Advocacy

Erin Pritchard is Senior Lecturer in Disability Studies and Core Member of the Centre for Culture and Disability Studies at Liverpool Hope University. She also acts as a consultant to Walt Disney Productions regarding representations of dwarfism.

• Introduction; Erin Pritchard Chapter 1. Curating New Perspectives: How My Dwarfism Led Me to Disability Art; Amanda Cachia Chapter 2. Little Big Women: Condescension - Sculpting the Oppositional Gaze; Debra Keenahan Chapter 3. Where are the Creative Opportunities for People with Dwarfism Lived Experience in Participatory Arts Funding?; Steph Robson Chapter 4. It's Behind You: How Equity and an Education Made Me More than Just a Suit Filler; Alice Lambert and Erin Pritchard Chapter 5. Midgitte Bardot: Using drag performance to challenge people’s perceptions and attitudes of dwarfism; Tam Reynolds and Erin Pritchard Chapter 6. The Path to Success is Long and Winding: Challenging Stereotypes and Fighting for Disability Equality in the Entertainment Industry; Danny Woodburn and Erin Pritchard Chapter 7. Get The Balance Right: The Change in How People with Dwarfism are Depicted from Limited, Damaging and Negative to Realistic, Creative and Positive; Simon Minty Chapter 8. Creating Our Own Path: The Easterseals Disability Film Challenge; Nic Novicki and Erin Pritchard Chapter 9. Dwarfism Advocacy: A Life Tenure; Angela Muir Van Etten Chapter 10. Exploring Dwarfism Representation in Social Media: Intentionality and Advocacy as a Digital Content Creator; Kara B. Ayers Chapter 11. Podcasts as a Platform for Advocacy; Jillian Curwin Chapter 12. The Patchwork Representation We Too Often Miss; Sam Drummond Chapter 13. “Would You Befriend Me, Date Me, Hire Me If I Hadn’t Had My Bones Broken & Stretched to Look More Like Yours?”; Emily Sullivan SanfordEpilogue; Erin Pritchard

With an unequivocal commitment to the creation of new insights which challenge the dynamics of disablism, this collection provides a rare assemblage of insider knowledge on dwarfism, identity, and the arts. Rooted firmly in the initial principles of Disability Studies, with its centering of disabled people’s situated knowledges, whilst benefitting from more recent developments in Cultural Disability Studies, Pritchard, a leading figure in studies of dwarfism, has gathered the stories and arguments of an extensive range of people with dwarfism. All these contributors are well-positioned to provide a diverse body of accounts relating to dwarfism, setting personal aspects of life within wider social and cultural structures and contexts. All, together, this wide range of threads weave a rich tapestry, making a compelling statement for change in arts practice and wider cultural attitudes to dwarfism.