Abstract
The objective of this paper is to present a historical overview of the field of disability studies in Brazil. The approach takes into account the background of social models of disability and precursor scholarship in Brazil leading to the emergence of disability studies in the 2000s. It emphasizes the influence of key international scholars on their Brazilian counterparts and current research challenges for Brazilian disability studies.
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We recommend you read Tobias Hecht’s short story (chapter 19) before reading this chapter. This chapter reveals plot elements from Hecht’s story.
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Notes
- 1.
The Nucleus of Gender Identity and Subjectivities (NIGs) coordinated by anthropologist Miriam Pillar Grossi, and the Nucleus of Disability Studies (NED) coordinated by psychologist Adriano Henrique Nuernberg.
- 2.
They included: Dr. Olivia Pereira, who advised Pamela in research methodology, guided her to consider the Pestalozzis to the APAEs in a historical perspective, and directed her to study the legacy of Helen Antipoff (Block 2007). Dr. Rosana Glat, whose 1989 book “Somos Iguais a Vocês” (‘We are equal to you’) was ahead of its time, incorporating analyses of gender and power in the personal narratives of women with intellectual disability. Dr. Glat also spent hours with Pamela explaining the differences between US and Brazilian service systems for people with intellectual disability. Lastly Dr. Annibal Coelho de Amorim, whose research compared the self-advocacy movements for people with intellectual disability in Brazil, the United States and Japan. His example of creating communities through participatory research was very significant. Additional influences include: Rosangela Berman Bieler and Lilia Pinto Martins for introducing me to Brazilian disability rights history and the Brazilian approach to independent living movement. Sueli Satow brought her theoretical personal narrative approach.
- 3.
Free translation.
- 4.
Free translation.
- 5.
According to Foucault regimes or modes of subjectification are “the different modes by which, in our culture, human beings are made subjects.” (Foucault 1983, p. 208).
- 6.
Free translation.
- 7.
Several scholars from Brazilian universities were invited to present their research and discuss the “state of art” of disability studies in Brazil by event co-organizers Francisco Ortega, philosopher and teacher of IMS/UERJ, and chapter co-author (and former president of the Society for disability studies) Pamela Block. Invited keynotes included bioethicist and prominent Brazilian disability studies scholar Debora Diniz, Devva Kasnitz (who was President of the Society for disability studies at the time), and psychiatrist and historian Fernando Ramos. Several Brazilian universities including the State University of Rio de Janeiro, the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the Federal University of Santa Catarina, University of Brasilia, the Federal University of São Carlos, and the University of Campinas, among others, all of these having groups, centers, or research lines connected with disability or accessibility.
- 8.
Rita Amaral was also honored in the First National Meeting on the Politics for Women with Disabilities which took place during the XI International Technologies Fair for Rehabilitation, Inclusion, and Accessibility (XI Reatech) in São Paulo/SP, on April 14–15, 2012, through the memorial address given by Adriana Dias.
- 9.
One of the highlights of this event was a much-praised booklet entitled “Guide to Basic Guidelines on Gender, Disability and Accessibility,” prepared by two members of the committee (Mello and Fernandes 2013).
- 10.
In Brazil the implementation of communication accessibility in 10th International Seminar “Doing Gender” was supported by the National Secretariat for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (SNPD).
- 11.
Free translation.
- 12.
The term “sexual dissidence” or “dissident sexuality” is a theoretical category of queer studies and was originally posted by Gayle Rubin in his seminal essay “Thinking Sex”. Whereas that Gay and Lesbian Studies have focused their investigations on the issue of homosexuality being a “natural” or “unnatural” behavior, remaining within a binary logic, queer theory expands the investigative focus to encompass any kind of sexual practice or identity that are on border of normative categories or deviant. We consider the disabled bodies part of the list of dissident sexualities.
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Acknowledgments
The first author expresses her thanks to Capes for granting her the master’s scholarship, and to CNPq for funding of the project “Feminist Theory, Queer Theory or Contemporary Social Theories?: the field of gender studies and sexuality in Brazil” (Process No. 402545/2010-9).
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Editors’ Postscript
If you liked this chapter by Mello et al., and are interesting in reading more about disability in Brazil, we recommend Chap. 19 “Crab and Yoghurt” by Tobias Hecht, which is discussed extensively in Chap. 20. Another chapter about disability and occupation in Brazil is “Artistic Therapeutic Treatment, Colonialism & Spectacle: A Brazilian Tale” by Marta Simões Peres, Francine Albiero de Camargo, José Otávio P. e Silva, and Pamela Block. If you are interested in intersections of disability, race, ethnicity, class, and violence consider Chap. 4: “Movements at War? Disability and Anti-Occupation Activism in Israel” by Liat Ben-Moshe and Chap. 21 “Black & Blue: Policing Disability & Poverty Beyond Occupy” by Leroy Franklin Moore Jr., Lisa ‘Tiny’ Garcia, and Emmitt Thrower. Other chapters that feature disability in the global south and legacies of colonialism include Michele Friedner: “Occupying Seats, Occupying Space, Occupying Time: Deaf Young Adults in Vocational Training Centers in Bangalore, India,” Chap. 5 “Landings: Decolonizing Disability, Indigeneity and Poetic Methods” by Petra Kuppers, and Chap. 9: “A Situational Analysis of Persons with Disabilities in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago: Education and Employment Policy Imperatives,” by Annicia Gayle-Geddes.
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de Mello, A.G., Block, P., Nuernberg, A.H. (2016). Occupying Disability Studies in Brazil. In: Block, P., Kasnitz, D., Nishida, A., Pollard, N. (eds) Occupying Disability: Critical Approaches to Community, Justice, and Decolonizing Disability. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9984-3_20
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