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Tobin Siebers

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Tobin Siebers (January 29, 1953 – January 29, 2015) was an American professor of literature, art, and design at the University of Michigan, and a key figure in the development of disability studies.

Early life and education

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Siebers was born January 29, 1953 in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, the son of Harold Siebers and Marion Jansen Siebers.[1] He was diagnosed with poliomyelitis at the age of two years old and lived with post-polio syndrome for the rest of his life. Siebers graduated from Kaukauna High School in 1971.[2] He earned a bachelor's degree in comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1975, MA in comparative literature from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1976, and a PhD in comparative literature from Johns Hopkins University in 1980.[3]

Career

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Siebers first wrote about his experience living with polio in his 1998 essay "My Withered Limb."[4] which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 1999.[5] His important books include Disability Theory (2008) and Disability Aesthetics (2010). In Disability Theory Siebers writes that "Disability is not a physical or mental defect but a cultural and minority identity."[6] Performance artist and disability activist Petra Kuppers referred to these works as "field defining."[7] He received the James T. Neubacher Award in 2009, from the Council for Disability Concerns.[7]

Publications

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  • The Ethics of Criticism (1990)[8]
  • Cold War Criticism and the Politics of Skepticism (1993)[9]
  • Heterotopia: Postmodern Utopia and the Body Politic (1994, editor)[10]
  • "My Withered Limb" (1998)[4]
  • The Body Aesthetic: From Fine Art to Body Modification (2000, editor)[11]
  • "Disability in Theory: From Social Constructionism to the New Realism of the Body" (2001)[12]
  • "Disability as Masquerade" (2004)[13]
  • Disability Theory (2008)[14]
  • Zerbrochene Schönheit (2009)[15]
  • Disability Aesthetics (2010)
  • "A Sexual Culture for Disabled People" (2012)[16]
  • "Disability and the Theory of Complex Embodiment: For Identity Politics in a New Register" (2016)[17]
  • "Returning the Social to the Social Model" (2019)[18]

Death and legacy

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Siebers died in 2015, at the age of 62.[7][19] His papers are in the collection of the University of Michigan's Bentley Historical Library.[3] In 2015, the University of Michigan Press and Department of English Language and Literature established The Tobin Siebers Prize for Disability Studies in the Humanities, for best book-length manuscript on a topic of pressing urgency to disability studies in the humanities.[20]

References

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  1. ^ "Mrs. Harold Siebers". The Post-Crescent. 1987-07-10. p. 22. Retrieved 2024-05-31 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Kaukauna High Lists Top Students". The Post-Crescent. 1971-06-03. p. 28. Retrieved 2024-05-31 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b Virakhovskaya, Olga (February 2017). "Finding Aid: Tobin Siebers papers, 1983-2013 (majority within 1986-2007)". University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  4. ^ a b Siebers, Tobin (Winter 2021). "My Withered Limb". Michigan Quarterly Review. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  5. ^ Siebers, Tobin (October 25, 2011). "Tobin Siebers: 2011 Fall Performing The Body Politic: Transgressions, Interventions, and Expressive Culture". Scripps College. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  6. ^ Raughley, Lynne (April 14, 2015). "Disability studies prize honors the late Tobin Siebers". Michigan Record. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  7. ^ a b c Kuppers, Petra (January 30, 2015). "Remembering Tobin Siebers, English professor, disability studies advocate | The University Record". record.umich.edu. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
  8. ^ Siebers, Tobin (1990). The Ethics of Criticism. Cornell University Press. hdl:20.500.12657/62066. ISBN 978-1-5017-2141-0.
  9. ^ Siebers, Tobin (1993-04-29). Cold War Criticism and the Politics of Skepticism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-535992-3.
  10. ^ Siebers, Tobin (1994). Heterotopia: Postmodern Utopia and the Body Politic. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-10557-1.
  11. ^ Siebers, Tobin (2000). The Body Aesthetic: From Fine Art to Body Modification. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-08673-3.
  12. ^ Siebers, Tobin (2001). "Disability in Theory: From Social Constructionism to the New Realism of the Body". American Literary History. 13 (4): 737–754. doi:10.1093/alh/13.4.737. ISSN 0896-7148. JSTOR 3054594.
  13. ^ Siebers, Tobin (March 2004). "Disability as Masquerade". Literature and Medicine. 23 (1): 1–22. doi:10.1353/lm.2004.0010. ISSN 1080-6571. PMID 15264507.
  14. ^ Siebers, Tobin (2008-06-16). Disability Theory. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-05039-0.
  15. ^ Levin, Mike; Siebers, Tobin (2010-06-01). "The Art of Disability: An Interview with Tobin Siebers". Disability Studies Quarterly. 30 (2). doi:10.18061/dsq.v30i2.1263. ISSN 2159-8371.
  16. ^ Siebers, Tobin (2012-01-04), McRuer, Robert; Mollow, Anna (eds.), "A Sexual Culture for Disabled People", Sex and Disability, Duke University Press, pp. 37–53, doi:10.1515/9780822394877-003, ISBN 978-0-8223-9487-7, retrieved 2024-05-31
  17. ^ Siebers, Tobin. "Disability and the Theory of Complex Embodiment: For Identity Politics in a New Register" in Lennard J. Davis, ed., The Disability Studies Reader (Taylor & Francis 2016): 313-332. ISBN 9781317397861
  18. ^ Siebers, Tobin. "Returning the Social to the Social Model" in David T. Mitchell, Susan Antabi, and Sharon L. Snyder, eds., The Matter of Disability: Materiality, Biopolitics, Crip Affect (University of Michigan Press 2019): .39-47. ISBN 9780472054114
  19. ^ Northen, Michael (2019). "Tobin Siebers: A Tribute". Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature (33).
  20. ^ Watkinson, Charles (January 30, 2016). "War on Autism awarded inaugural Tobin Siebers Prize for Disability Studies | University of Michigan Press". press.umich.edu. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
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