Susan Schweik, Professor

Office: 309 Wheeler

Phone: 510-642-4477

Areas of Interest

Disability studies. Poetry. 20th-Century American Literature. 19th-Century American literature. Cultural Studies. Gender & Sexuality Studies. Race and Ethnicity.

Current Research

My book _The Ugly Laws_, forthcoming from NYU Press, is a social and cultural history of an ordinance adopted by many American cities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The law prohibited "diseased," "maimed," and "deformed" people from exposing themselves to public view. I am completing a new book tentatively titled _Local Characters: Race and Disability in the American Archive_.

Professional Statement

Susan Schweik is Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities and a recent recipient of the Chancellor's Award for Advancing Institutional Excellence. A former Presidential Chair in Undergraduate Education for Disability Studies at U.C. Berkeley, she has been involved with the development of disability studies at Berkeley for nine years. She was co-coordinator of the Ed Roberts Fellowships in Disability Studies post-doctoral program at Berkeley (coordinated by the Institute for Urban and Regional Development). She has taught and co-taught undergraduate courses in Disability and Literature, Discourses of Disability, The Disability Rights Movement, Disability and Digital Storytelling, Psychiatric Disability, Literature and Medicine, and Race, Ethnicity and Disability, among others, and graduate courses in Body Theory and Disability Studies and Advanced Disability Studies. Her other teaching and research interests include twentieth century poetry, late nineteenth century American literature, women's studies and gender theory, urban studies, war literature and children's literature. She is a recipient of Berkeley's Distinguished Teaching Award.

Selected Publications and Papers Delivered

The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public. Forthcoming from New York University Press.

A Gulf So Deeply Cut: American Women Poets and the Second World War, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991.

"Disability Politics and American Literary History: Some Suggestions," in American Literary History Spring/Summer 2008

"Disability, Mendicancy, Speech and the Law," in Narrative 2007

"Josephine Miles' Crip(t) Words: Gender, Disability, Doll," in Journal of Literary Disability 1.1. 2007

“The Voice of ‘Reason’,” Public Culture ( Fall 2001) in special issue entitled “The Critical Limits of Embodiment: Reflections on Disability Criticism.”

“Disability Studies Meets Susan Sontag,” invited panelist, Columbia University, March 2004

“Doing/Not Doing Disability Studies at Berkeley,” invited lecture at Disability Studies in the University, the first national conference on Disability in the Humanities, sponsored by the MLA, Emory University March 2004

“Talking About Assisted Suicide,” invited lecture, Rock Ethics Institute, Penn State University, March 2003

“The Ugly Laws of Disability Studies,” invited lecture, Feminist Scholars Series, Penn State, March 2003

“Developing Disability Studies,” invited lecture, Ohio State, March 2003

“The Ugly Laws of Disability Studies,” invited lecture, University of Illinois, Chicago, February 2003

“The Ugly Laws of Disability Studies,” invitred lecture, University of Michigan, November 2002

“The Ugly Laws of Disability Studies,” invited paper at conference on “Unruly Bodies: Disability Studies and Cultural Dissonance,” Haverford College, October 2002

“The Ugly Laws of Disability Studies,” invited lecture for the “Facing Disability: Embodiment, Representation and Rights” conference, The Center for Media, Culture and History, New York University, March 21-22, 2002

“Josephine Miles and the Language of Disability,” invited lecture at U.C. Santa Cruz, May 2001

“Literary Disability Studies,” invited lecture at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, April 24 2001

“Dolls, Poetry and Disability,” Gender and Disability Conference, Rutgers University, March 2001

“The Voice of ‘Reason,’” American Women Writers Conference, San Antonio, February 2001

“Claiming Agent Orange” and “Bodies of Verse: Poetry and Disability,” Invited lectures at University of Hawai’i at Manoa, April 1997.

“Some Streets in Bronzeville,” panel on “New Approaches to Women’s Poetry,” Modern Language Convention, Washington DC, December 1996.

“Blood Pudding,” panel on “Body Claims,” Modern Language Convention, Dec. 1995.

“Literary Studies on the Causes, Courses and Consequences of War,” Cultural Dimensions of War Conference, Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis, March 1994.

Office Hours

M 12-2