Here are a few highlights from the web over the last couple of weeks that might be of interest. This Longform article Autobiography of a body tells a really powerful story of a young woman's struggle with sexuality and disability: "Grealy visited the Sex Maniacs’ Ball in London, an annual event hosted by the Outsiders, an organization that promotes sexual freedom for the disabled. There she discovered that her sexuality was “part of something I am, a state of being rather than a state of action. And that’s true whatever my body looks like from the outside.” This piece from The Washington Post, features Sam Tsemberis, a psychologist whose radical solution to the problem of … [Read more...] about Critical physiotherapy – best of the web update
Rethinking Rehabilitation book now in print and ebook
A few months ago I mentioned that a couple of people from the Critical Physiotherapy Network had collaborated on a project to bring together a book called Rethinking Rehabilitation. Well the book has been published and is available for order on line. The book began in 2012 as a collaborative project between Barbara Gibson, Associate Professor at University of Toronto and Bloorview Children’s Hospital Foundation Chair in Childhood Disability Studies, and Kath McPherson, Professor of Rehabilitation at AUT University in Auckland, New Zealand. The authors met in Toronto for a two-day symposium in July 2012 where everyone presented and discussed their proposed chapters. From that came the … [Read more...] about Rethinking Rehabilitation book now in print and ebook
How to write a thesis
This post, which originally appeared here, reviews and celebrates Umberto Eco's book How to write a thesis, which is now in its twenty-third edition in Italy and translated into seventeen languages. If you are thinking about engaging in a thesis, are already doing one, or have students working through their doctorates, the new English translation of Eco's book might be just for you. The passing of time and technological developments have altered the way researchers engage and interact with their source material. In light of this, Eco’s How to Write a Thesis becomes increasingly significant and even more when one considers the publication has not been edited or revised since its release … [Read more...] about How to write a thesis
No pain, no gain
Reading a recent book on Nurses and Midwives in Nazi Germany: The "Euthanasia Programs" by Susan Benedict and Linda Shields reminded me the that there is often a reluctance to research the darker sides to our professional histories. I remember Dave Holmes once telling me that he received some really aggressive and distressing criticism from his colleagues when his paper Killing for the state: The darkest side of American nursing was published. It seems that people within nursing took exception to someone questioning the morality of nurses who made people comfortable on death row in preparation for the electric chair and the lethal injection. In some ways I can understand this kind of … [Read more...] about No pain, no gain
New book – Feeling pleasures: The sense of touch in Renaissance England
There has been a lot more interest in the philosophy of touch in recent years. Books like Constance Classen's Book of Touch have raised the bar on scholarship in this area (also see Classen's 'Centre for Sensory Studies' at Concordia Uni). A lot of interest has focused on the meaning of touch; something I've been interested in as a historian and philosopher of physiotherapy (link). Now a new book has been published by OUP that looks really interesting and well worth a read if you are interested in attitudes towards touch over time. Feeling Pleasures: Sense of Touch in Renaissance England Joe Moshenska The sense of touch had a deeply uncertain status in the sixteenth and … [Read more...] about New book – Feeling pleasures: The sense of touch in Renaissance England
Some January highlights
In case you missed these notices during January, here are a few new things that you might be interested in: Breath A beautiful short video about breath from The Mercadantes, the husband-and-wife filmmakers Daniel and Katina Mercadante in California. The film explores the human breath and its innumerable forms – from the first gasping cries of a newborn to the sighed relief of a well-earned chance to rest. New book by Felix Guattari A new book edited by Gary Genosko collecting some of French philosopher Félix Guattari's work during his frequent visits to Japan in the 1980s. Guattari frequently visited Japan during the 1980s and organized exchanges between French and Japanese artists and … [Read more...] about Some January highlights
Strong and modern – physiotherapy and physical culture
Physiotherapists are very interested in fitness, leisure and sport, but they rarely discuss the history of these ideas, or the place of physical therapies (massage, manipulations and mobilisations, remedial exercise, electrotherapy, hydrotherapy etc.) in the promotion of the health of the population. There are a number of reasons why I think we should pay more attention to this specific history. Firstly, it's one of the few areas where physical therapies have made a genuine contribution to the health of the population. I don't mean the health of individual patients that, taken together, amounts to the health of the population, but rather an approach applied to the population as a whole - … [Read more...] about Strong and modern – physiotherapy and physical culture