The Program for Humanities in Medicine, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, and Social Medicine in Action Seminar will present the Kenneth and Georgia Barwick Lecture: Disability Worlds: Genetic Testing, Neurodiversity, Disability Activism.

Thirty years after the ADA, genetic testing and disability activism stand in ever-increasing tension between two foundational American cultural values: the utopian dream of perfectibility through medical technology and the expansion of disability activism to include neurodiversity. One imaginary builds on the idea of the elimination of disability, while the other embraces the inclusion of all kinds of bodyminds. Our talk explores this tension, based on our long-term ethnographic fieldwork and advocacy.

Following the talk, be among the first to explore a new exhibition opening of “Disability, Disability Activism, and the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act” in the Cushing Rotunda in the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library.