Dancing Mind Press: Nutty Professors article

Monday, April 5, 2010

Nutty Professors article

I mentioned way early on in blogging Mikita Brottman and her notorious article, "Nutty Professors," which recommends that universities refrain from hiring autistic faculty. The link I gave for the article was to the online edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education, which first had the bad sense to publish it. Alas, it is no longer free there so I'm including the link to the article as it appears in the Los Angeles Times. I'll try to fix the earlier link but figure there might be something galvanizing about a second look for some of us in 2010. Here also is the link to Kathleen Seidel's meticulous deconstruction of the article. Note that the LA printing still identifies Brottman as a practicing psychotherapist despite her absence of any professional credentials for that line of work.

Nutty Professors by Mikita Brottman
Copyright 2010 The Chronicle of Higher Education. Reprinted with permission.

http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T001&prodId=PROF&docId=A147068084&source=gale&srcprod=PROF&userGroupName=lom_washtenawcc&version=1.0

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jEAn Kearns Miller

A Rough Mission Statement First, a preface Dancing Mind Press began when I, in concert with other women on the spectrum, especially contributing editors Ava Baker, Jane Meyerding, Daina Krumins & Sola Shelly, realized that the terms offered by one of the leading publishers of books about autism were unacceptable. I suppose this qualifies as "no guts, no glory" but the issue came down to whether we would be willing to do our "Elephant Man" side show for the P&Ps with the vain hope of eventually taking over the reins of public discourse on autism. WFAP? really does provides rich information on women on the autism spectrum but in the context of (1) our lives as whole people (2) who are making our way through a world driven by systems of social & cultural treachery. We have plenty to say! People who have happened upon the book have written fan letters claiming that it: * changed autistic women's lives, in its authenticity & resonance with their realty as autistics which makes them see they are not alone. * provided parents with a source of hope, not based on the possibility of a cure, but on crucial insight previously unavailable in the P&P model * gave readers with all sorts of brain differences a sense of belonging to a larger neurological world that can make meaningful coalition possible & exciting in its prospects * gave multidisciplinary scholars something richly generative to think & rhetoricize about. These needs are not being met in the larger book publishing industry. I dare to imagine that the presence of a fan base for the book such as I have encountered so far indicates the existence of many, many more who are highly receptive if not hungry for not only WFAP? but an array of works that will challenge, enlighten, move them. This in brief is my starting point. Dancing Mind Press seeks to publish * Insightful work by different-brained authors based on the whole person model and eschewing the medical one. Various genres. Though individual conditions (e.g., autism, AD/HD) are included works are not limited to any one condition. * Works placing brain atypicality in a public, cultural, Systematized context to include social justice, civil rights, discrimination & stigma. * Multidisciplinary writings that can generate new ideas and transform or kick start thinking. * Works that affirm a necessary connection to disability rights & disability studies. * Elucidating works about life with an inconspicuous disability by those experiencing it. * Elucidating works by & about persons who have been minorities of one, so as to inform a definition of the concept of multiplicity (as contrasted with diversity) to expand our notions of difference.

Dancing Mind Press

Monday, April 5, 2010

Nutty Professors article

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jEAn Kearns Miller

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