Book Review: Uncharted

 

Image: the cover of the book is a cream background with a purple line curving back abd forth across the cover before shooting up to the right and fading to light blue. In large black letters is the title "uncharted" and below that in red letters in between the curves of the purple line is, "how scientists navigate their own health, research, and experiences of bias." Across the bottom in yellow letters is, "edited by skylar bayer and gabi serrato marks"

Being a book reviewer who apparently can't read, I initially processed the byline of Uncharted as being about researchers navigating their health and research bias rather than sharing their experiences of such. In hindsight it would have been weird if a book about disabled researchers was all them talking about discriminating against other people. In reality, this book does what it actually says in the title and collects the voices of disabled and chronically ill researchers discussing their experience with a wide variety of things in their fields and elsewhere.

This book has one of the most diverse sets of people across the essays included that I have encountered in an anthology. I admittedly expected a book with any sort of academia to be skewed in a certain direction. Instead this book offers a wide range of disabilities, ages, genders, economic backgrounds, countries of origin, races, and science fields. No book is ever perfect at covering every demographic, of course. Since this is an English text there's going to be some skewing there for instance. Yet, I can't recall the last time that I ran into an anthology with people from so many different life experiences.

I also found the essays in this book to be pretty good across the board. Some moved me more than others, but I think that all of them had something to offer the reader. I have to reiterate how nice it was to see a wide range of disabilities and chronic illnesses mentioned because it really covered a wide range of barriers that both disabled and non-disabled researchers would benefit from overcoming. Some of the participants saw their disability as part of them and something they did not wish to change. Other participants, such as some with chronic illness, wanted their problems to get better or go away. There was a wide range of discussion of everything in between as well. Multiple contributors discuss the social model of disability including its benefits and flaws. One of my favorite essays included a researcher who discussed how the social model of disability can also be used to make sure people, such as those who speak other languages or who aren't fluent in English, can be better included in research.

There were of course many stories of strife and struggle in this book. These ranged from struggles with literal physical barriers such as the lack of wheelchair accessibility in so many fields and buildings to the responses of advisors and colleagues ranging from dismissive to reprehensible. There are also many stories of people coming together to include their colleagues with disabilities. It is clear that that is not enough. Without systemic change, many people with disabilities are still relying on the kindness of other scientists and grad students who are also overwhelmed. Disabled people should not have to rely on such an unstable structure in order to be able to participate. Luckily there are some institutions who are trying to do better who are detailed by some of the contributors.

The design of the print book also had accessibility in mind to a certain extent. I liked how each grouping of essays got its own small introduction. They were content warnings at the start of each essay. The book was written in accessible language for the most part. There are illustrations either of the contributors or sometimes other images at the beginning of each entry, but there are not any image descriptions. Since I did not use an audio or ebook, maybe those are present there. Since there are blind contributors it seems like this was an oversight not to include descriptions if it isn't an audiobook or ebook.

For those of you reading who may be on the collective/total liberation spectrum wondering if you will be forced to endure people who harm nonhuman animals discussing the difficulties with access while completely ignoring their literal disabling/exploiting/killing of their victims in laboratory cages, fear not. There are so many different research fields portrayed here and that those who mentioned doing work with other animals were people doing field work such as ecology or climate research. If there are any who are doing captive animal research, they didn't mention it, but I admittedly did not Google every person.

One of the most important messages this book is that accessibility helps everyone. Accessibility for disabled people should be reason enough to include it in every structure and system. However, even people without disabilities or disabled folks without each other's disabilities will benefit from accessibility for all. Not only do accessible systems often make things easier for abled people as well, this book makes clear just how many brilliant scientists we are deprived of overall when they can't even get in the door or sustain the grueling grad program that is a struggle for even those without chronic illness. Disabled people who don't use wheelchairs and abled people both benefit from wheelchair accessibility. Healthy disabled people and abled people both benefit from structures that allow more flexibility for those with chronic illness. Even the most self-centered abled person on Earth must reckon with the reality that even they will benefit. This book reminds us how important it is to see accessibility as solidarity and as a collective liberation effort rather than an optional form of charity.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Bird's-Eye Views

 

 

Image: the cover of the book shows an emu and two different species of geese hanging out together and facing towards the camera against a backdrop of dense trees. On the top is a cascade of several shades of green with the book title and author's name. Bird's eye views - queer queeies about activism, animals, and identity - pattrice jones.

I want to start this review by saying that Bird's-Eye Views is the first book from Vine Sanctuary press. If you don't already know, VINE sanctuary is a massive lgbtq founded and led sanctuary for animals who have been rescued from farming and other exploitation industries. They do a massive amount of work with a tight budget including everything from creating a very groundbreaking multi-species community where the sanctuary residents have much more agency than many rescues, rehabbing animals like roosters abused in cockfighting (that even rescues often incorrectly assume must be killed,) running programs for students and children, book clubs and talks, podcasts and other education efforts, lgbtq and anti-racist organizing, and many others. Despite all of this they don't have the social media reach or funding of many sanctuaries including those that are much smaller. Purchasing this book will support that sanctuary and their residents. Go and give them a follow in your socials as well.  

All of that said, I write honest reviews and this is not an obligatory positive review. I've given 1 star to bad books by people I admire before and luckily didn't have to do that here! This book is fantastic.  

Pattrice Jones has a long history in organizing, education, and writing. She has a knack for writing about a variety of things in accessible language. I had encountered her essays here and there in anthologies, but it was her book Oxen at the Intersection that made her one of my favorite authors. It was one of those books involving animal liberation that said all the things that I wish people would say more. As a result, when I saw that this book of essays was coming out and that it would include many that had not been accessible before, I was very excited.  

This book has many essays about birds and other animals, but also includes topics like rent strikes, anti-war efforts, direct action and tactical discussion, climate change, anarchism, feminism, etc. I do really love that this book focuses so much on birds, though. A lot of animal lib/rights/rescue focuses on mammals because humans often relate to fellow mammals more than we do other species. This text focuses on birds in a way that really draws the reader in from a variety of entry points.   

I was quite impressed by how varied these essays were- coming from expected discussions of animal liberation, anarcho/eco/feminism, and lgbtq organizing to topics like art, psychoanalysis, and philosophy. You can see how much pattrice understands and thinks about these issues and how she's able to deftly navigate each of these topics in a way that makes a ton of sense.  I generally stick page flags throughout nonfiction books of any topic, but this is one of those books where I ended up putting flags on entire chapters because I was highlighting so many passages. There is something about the way pattrice writes that adds something new to the discourses around all of these topics.   

I have a hard line rule about reading about and watching animal suffering. I generally do not do it anymore except for in very particular circumstances. Let me first be clear that this book is not full of graphic discussions of animal suffering, on the contrary. However in sections where it is discussed, this is one of the times that I did not skip over the sections. Pattrice discusses the experience of birds in a way that draws the reader into their minds and what it might be like to live their lives. It helps me feel not just completely overwhelmed and defeated by the suffering, but motivated to do and think more about it. Her descriptions for instance of what it must be like to be a battery hen will bring tears to my eyes, but then push me forward to the next evolution in thinking. I'm sure it also helps to know that the person writing it may be doing so while surrounded by many birds who were able to make it out thanks to the sanctuary.  

Many articles really stuck out for me as saying something so important yet so needed in various discourses. There is an anarchist essay on the idea of property and communication within and across species that really got the gears turning in my head as did discussions of "natural anarchism" in more than human communities of other species. The discussions taking place around tactical divisions and false dichotomies of "welfarist" vs "abolitionist" (and the armchair authoritarian men often involved) has always been necessary and unfortunately continues to be so. There were multiple pieces that were about Queer love and solidarity that made my often pessimistic Queer heart grow three times it's size. I didn't expect to smile so much at times during this book. Some of the articles that were only published in other languages in the past were really good and I'm glad that they've been published here in English. Pattrice also navigates the difficult discussion of indigenous human beings and their effects on other animals who were there before humans arrived.* Along with all of these, I really enjoyed the "(non)human interest" stories (I don't know another name for the genre) that are peppered throughout the essays where we get to learn about the lives of individual sanctuary residents.   

The only thing I would like to hear more about from this book, and part of it is because many of these essays are older, is even more expansion of gender politics. There is a lot of discussion of men being in charge of many exploitation industries which is overall been true throughout history especially of white men. However, particularly in countries like the USA, as (especially white) women break more and more glass ceilings only to join in furthering the same kinds of oppression, and as people of other marginalized groups do the same, I would like to see more complex analysis. I don't think we can merely say that these people are copying white patriarchy, there are intersections here that are complicated and I would love to hear interesting takes on those intersections of hierarchy and oppression coming together that I'm sure she has lots of thoughts on. That is not to say that things like whiteness are never acknowledged in this book, on the contrary. Combatting white supremacy is a core tenet of this text. I'm addressing specifically eco-feminist essays, especially ones from decades ago.  

The way pattrice wraps up the book really touched me. She acknowledges how reckoning with all of these things discussed in the book can feel so incredibly defeating. Everything feels so big, so horrifying, so.... Inevitable. It can often feel like we shouldn't even try anymore. The author acknowledges this feeling well, but also reminds us why it's important to keep going. After all, any good anarchist knows that it's not the final destination that we're striving for, but the consistent and everlasting journey towards liberation.  

* With the exception of humans in Africa where we all originated, those we call indigenous humans were the first to arrive in that location. They were not the first animals to exist there. In some of these cases, the arrival of humans led to the endangering or even extinction of species. When followed up later by European Colonialism, you get something a million times larger and more devastating for indigenous humans and tons more species. We must also think about indigenous species in discussions of who deserves space and stay away from forcing indigenous humans into a monolith of a single people who all resemble white people's notions of a modern day environmentalistwith indigenous heritage.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Creating Our Own Lives

 

Image: the cover of the book is a white background with "creating our own lives" in large red letters in the center. At the bottom is "Michael Gill and Beth Myers, editors" abd at the top is "college students with intellectual disability." In the rest of the white space are a bunch of illustrations of backpacks of many different colors and styles.

Creating Our Own Lives is a groundbreaking collection. This is true not only for the world at large but also for the most niche realms of disability justice and scholarship. All too often, intellectually and developmentally disabled (I will use I&DD for brevity) people are left out of disability discourse, or worse, are intentionally abandoned so that other disabled folks can prove that they're not like them. Collecting these voices of intellectually disabled folks about their experiences with higher education is truly admirable and absolutely crucial for disability justice to succeed for all.   

There are a wide variety of voices in this book with a wide range of intellectual disabilities and support needs. Some entries are composed by a single disabled author, while others include multiple voices from both the disabled author and their family, tutor, friend, mentor, etc. We end up with a snapshot of the many ways people can experience college, what they want from it, and how they can best be included with other students rather than solely placed in a separate facility. Some authors also include poetry or other creative forms of expression with their entries. 

The common thread that was woven throughout these essays was the importance of the college experience. This book offered a welcome challenge to my internalized capitalism and meritocracy. Even as a disabled anarchist who initially went to college for art (later psychology) knowing that there was no money there, to learn and experience new things, I found myself asking, "but is this going to get you a job that will make a living wage? Will you be able to pay off debt? Are you learning the (right, valuable, constructive, etc) things?" It was fantastic to be pushed back into the thinking that I want to have- that there is value in the experience and learning in and of themselves that should be available to all. This is not to say that they didn't learn important things that benefitted them later- they certainly did and that's clear.  

This book also did not shy away from some of the specific dangers and hurtles faced by students with intellectual disabilities. One author along with her family recounts the experience of rape, calling attention to the frequency at which women and girls (and frankly, all other genders) with I&DD are targets of predators. Others discussed how their race, sexuality, nationality, specific access needs, etc affected their experiences. The way many people describe their experiences and how they process the world offers a much better look into their lives than textbooks written by non-I&DD professionals.   

I was also left with some worries. There are a few programs mentioned multiple times throughout that I had not previously heard of and thus would like more information on. There is also a thread of the authors generally having suppotive family and friends and enough financial support to cover the costs of education and all of the supports around it. I used to work with I&DD folks who were mostly middle age and older adults, many of whom had few to no supports and lived in poverty. How can we make these programs accessible to them?   

Another thing that really worried me was the frequent mention of unpaid internships. Unpaid internships are already exploitative and shady when the people slaving under them don't have I&DD. When you take into account that the USA allows disabled people to be paid sub-minimum wage and the fact that many of the contributors were seeking jobs in things like food service, teachers assistants, early childhood support, etc, unpaid internships seem like a great way for corporations to both profit from an image of "helping" disabled people while having them work without pay. Perhaps there's a small modicum of redeemability if an internship leads you to a high pay job where you can recover from working for nothing. This is not the case with many of the jobs sought out here. Generally, people who join food service jobs, for instance, go through training at their location and are paid during that time. There's no reason that should change for an I&DD person. I do not feel that the editors reckoned enough with these possibilities of exploitation. They did discuss ableism and interconnected oppressions, but seemed to see these programs as an antidote.  

In the end, my question is: Are these programs equitably designed or are they a drink of water in the desert? It's probably a bit of both. Nonetheless, this book exists as an important step forward and justly highlights the voices of people who often remain unheard and unseen. I hope that it leads to more scholarship in this direction.  

This was also posted to my goodreads.