Writing Disability into Colonial Histories of Humanitarianism

"In this paper, the relation between humanity and disability is addressed by discussing the agency of people with disabilities in colonial histories of humanitarianism. People with disabilities were often - as indicated by relevant sources - regarded and treated as passive, suffering fellow humans, in particular in the making and distribution of colonial photography. In the context of humanitarianism, is it possible to understand these photographs differently? This paper analyzes one photograph - from the collection of the Tropenmuseum Amsterdam - of people with leprosy in the protestant leprosarium Bethesda, in the Dutch colony Suriname, at the beginning of the twentieth century. It discusses the way the sitters in the photograph have been framed, and how the photograph has been made and used. The photograph makes it difficult to register agency, but easily reaffirms existing colonial categories. Therefore, this paper also uses another strategy of analysis. By following Actor-Network Theory, focusing on non-human actors, the second part of this paper offers a new and more convincing interpretation of the photograph. This strategy (a) understands agency as a phenomenon of interdependence instead of independence, and (b) approaches photographs as both real and performed. Combining the written history of humanitarianism and disability, it allows new histories of people with disabilities to develop, histories that move beyond the categories of colonialism." (author's abstract

Humanity as a Contested Concept: Relations between Disability and 'Being Human' (Editorial)

"This editorial presents the theme and approach of the themed issue 'Humanity as a Contested Concept: Relations between Disability and 'Being Human'.' The way in which the concept of humanity is or must be related to disability is critically investigated from different disciplinary perspectives in the themed issue, which is, moreover, situated in the field of disability studies and related to discussions about posthumanism. The argument is made that humanity is a concept that needs to be constantly reflected upon from a disability studies perspective. Finally, the contributions of the themed issue are briefly outlined." (author's abstract

Belated integration: disability in international human rights law

Cities, Migration and Global Interdependenc

Inequality in Global Disability Policies since the 1970s

Political Culture and National Identit

Ordering disability: how can modernity theory inform disability history

Political Culture and National Identit

Het religieuze archief van handicap

Cities, Migration and Global Interdependenc

Equal reproduction rights? The right to found a family in United Nations’ disability policy since the 1970s

Political Culture and National Identit