Welcome to the blog for Disabled, Human: a documentary film project and blog in process. I started this project in June 2015 as a fellow in Experiential Training in Historic Information Resources. Since this fellowship involves the digital humanities, I had proposed a digital storytelling project about the disability rights collections housed in the Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I planned to focus on the women activists who lived in Massachusetts and whose papers have been donated to SCUA. To start the digital part of this project, I created this website and blog, aiming to update readers about my process of learning how disability rights advocates have been working in Massachusetts.
Excited to get started in reading the papers and examining photos in the archives, I quickly saw that this project could grow beyond the timing set for the fellowship. I started by looking for materials in the finding aid for the Judi Chamberlin papers, and I selected some boxes to begin this journey. Although I shifted to looking into the Belchertown State School Friends Association papers, I thought there must be a connection I could draw between the two collections of papers, as well as several others that I have not yet seen.
Before creating this website, my research began with a conversation. I met with Rob Cox, the Head of SCUA, and Aaron Rubinstein, University and Digital Archivist at SCUA, in June. I explained my interest in the women activists for disability rights. Cox informed me of more details of the history of institutionalization and mental health, and made many rich suggestions about places to start. The reading list began to grow: Fred Pelka's book What We Have Done: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement (2012); Shuko Tamao's Master's Thesis "The Politics of Psychiatric Experience," Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish. I also discovered books specifically on the Belchertown State School: Professor Benjamin Ricci's book, Crimes Against Humanity; Ruth Sienkiewicz-Mercer and Steven B Kaplan's book, I Raise My Eyes to Say Yes; and Robert Hornick's book, The Girls and Boys of Belchertown.
Eager to see what the archives held, I also started to go through the Chamberlin papers and the Belchertown State School Friends Association Papers. To keep track of names and important dates, I started excel workbooks, and took notes on the people mentioned in the papers. My hope was to find those still living and interview them about their roles in advocacy. Then came the idea to start an oral history project, which may come to fruition, pending further funding. By combining the interviews for the oral history project, photos and documents, I thought I could put my training in film studies to good use and go further to make a documentary film. "What are you thinking?!" and "Let's do this!" are the combating thoughts that have stuck with me since that moment. I'm going with "Let's do this!"
Excited to get started in reading the papers and examining photos in the archives, I quickly saw that this project could grow beyond the timing set for the fellowship. I started by looking for materials in the finding aid for the Judi Chamberlin papers, and I selected some boxes to begin this journey. Although I shifted to looking into the Belchertown State School Friends Association papers, I thought there must be a connection I could draw between the two collections of papers, as well as several others that I have not yet seen.
Before creating this website, my research began with a conversation. I met with Rob Cox, the Head of SCUA, and Aaron Rubinstein, University and Digital Archivist at SCUA, in June. I explained my interest in the women activists for disability rights. Cox informed me of more details of the history of institutionalization and mental health, and made many rich suggestions about places to start. The reading list began to grow: Fred Pelka's book What We Have Done: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement (2012); Shuko Tamao's Master's Thesis "The Politics of Psychiatric Experience," Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish. I also discovered books specifically on the Belchertown State School: Professor Benjamin Ricci's book, Crimes Against Humanity; Ruth Sienkiewicz-Mercer and Steven B Kaplan's book, I Raise My Eyes to Say Yes; and Robert Hornick's book, The Girls and Boys of Belchertown.
Eager to see what the archives held, I also started to go through the Chamberlin papers and the Belchertown State School Friends Association Papers. To keep track of names and important dates, I started excel workbooks, and took notes on the people mentioned in the papers. My hope was to find those still living and interview them about their roles in advocacy. Then came the idea to start an oral history project, which may come to fruition, pending further funding. By combining the interviews for the oral history project, photos and documents, I thought I could put my training in film studies to good use and go further to make a documentary film. "What are you thinking?!" and "Let's do this!" are the combating thoughts that have stuck with me since that moment. I'm going with "Let's do this!"