Presents a powerful new vision of the history of science through the lens of disability studies.

Disability has been a central--if unacknowledged--force in the history of science, as in the scientific disciplines. Across historical epistemology and laboratory research, disability has been "good to think with" an object of investigation made to yield generalizable truths. Yet disability is rarely imagined to be the source of expertise, especially the kind of expertise that produces (rational, neutral, universal) scientific knowledge.

This volume of Osiris places disability history and the history of science in conversation to foreground disability standpoints, disabled scientists, and disability sciencing (engagement with scientific tools and processes). Looking beyond paradigms of medicalization and industrialization, the volume authors examine knowledge production about disability from the ancient world to the present in fields ranging from mathematics to the social sciences, resulting in groundbreaking histories of taken-for-granted terms such as impairment, infirmity, epidemics, and shōgai.

Some contributors trace the disabling impacts of scientific theories and practices in the contexts of war, factory labor, insurance, and colonialism; others excavate racial and settler ableism in the history of scientific facts, protocols, and collections; still others query the boundaries between scientific, lay, and disability expertise. Contending that disability alters method, authors bring new sources and interpretation techniques to the history of science, overturn familiar narratives, apply disability analyses to established terms and archives, and discuss accessibility issues for disabled historians. The resulting volume announces a disability history of science.
About the Author: Jaipreet Virdi is associate professor of history at the University of Delaware and co-chair of the Hagley Graduate Program in Capitalism, Technology, and Culture. Mara Mills is associate professor of media, culture, and communication at New York University and founding co-director of the NYU Center for Disability Studies. Sarah F. Rose is associate professor of history at the University of Texas at Arlington, where she founded and directs the UTA Disability Studies Minor.