Reading Resistance

The Authors: Beth A. Ferri is Associate Professor in Teaching and Leadership, Cultural Foundations of Education, and Disability Studies at Syracuse University, where she also coordinates the Masters program in Secondary Inclusive Education and the Doctoral program in Special Education, as well as serves on the Advisory Board of the Women’s Studies program. She received her Ph.D. in Special Education and graduate certificate in Women’s Studies at the University of Georgia. For her interdisciplinary scholarship in feminist disability studies and critical disability inquiry, she was recently recognized as an Outstanding Young Scholar in Disability Studies in Education. David J. Connor is Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education at Hunter College, City University of New York. He received his Ed.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University. His dissertation research focusing on the intersections of disability, race, and class was awarded the Teachers College President’s Grant for Student Research in Diversity. In addition, he was the recipient of the 2005 Outstanding Young Scholar in Disability Studies in Education.

«‘Reading Resistance’ presents an important and timely discussion of the intersections between white privilege and ableism and the interconnections between IDEA and Brown v. Board of Education… Of key value is the overview of how race becomes an organizing principle of social life and how mainstream classrooms are constructed through rhetorics of ability, ideologies of normalcy, and rituals of exclusion. At the same time, this book is not ‘just theory.’ The authors craft their arguments to clarify complex issues and link them with suggestions for practice. Readers will gain a good sense of what is needed to transform classrooms and schools to allow them to be equitable and just, as well as to contribute to a strong democracy in a multicultural society.» (Ellen Brantlinger, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, Indiana University, Bloomington) «Dramatically demonstrates the historical intertwining of the discourses of race and disability in American education. This portrait will relinquish any lingering doubts about the insidious role of racism in creating the perception that students of color are disproportionately ‘disabled.’» (Beth Harry, Professor, Special Education, University of Miami, Florida)