Jaipreet Virdi
@jaivirdi.com
Award-winning historian #HistSTM & #DisHist. Author of "Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History" (2020) and "Echoes of Care: Deafness in Modern Britain." Associate Professor at University of Victoria. Deaf & forever a radical Learn more: jaivirdi.com
Dr. Taussig lost her hearing around the time she graduated from med school. She used lip-reading and hearing aids with patients, and her fingers in place of a stethoscope. Colleagues said that her touch was sufficiently sensitive to detect some heart irregularities. Image: AMC Med. Archives / JHU
*deep, disappointed sigh* Cc: @jaivirdi.com @ashleyshoo.bsky.social @wolvendamien.bsky.social etc.
Science Magazine@science.org · 3mo agoInvolving seven finger ring sensors, a new system can translate American Sign Language and International Sign Language words to text. Learn more in #ScienceAdvances: https://scim.ag/4tQeJiW
It is surprising how so few of the many histories of eugenics centre the voices of disabled people. Uncovering these perspectives contradicts all previous narratives of eugenics in interwar Britain
Why did disabled people support eugenics in the 1930s? | Aeon Essays
In the story of eugenics, disabled people are often depicted as passive victims. But for some it seemed an opportunity
buff.ly
"We think of the eugenicist and the disabled person antagonistically, as perpetrator and victim. But it turns out their aims and interactions have long been entangled." Today's #histSTM lunch read: @coreenanne.bsky.social & Alex Aylward's @aeon.co essay on disabled views of #eugenics in the UK 🗃️📜
aeon.co
In the story of eugenics, disabled people are often depicted as passive victims. But for some it seemed an opportunity. An Essay by @coreenanne.bsky.social & Alex Aylward
Why did disabled people support eugenics in the 1930s? | Aeon Essays
In the story of eugenics, disabled people are often depicted as passive victims. But for some it seemed an opportunity
aeon.co
I think it sucks this nearly 1,000 word article includes only one critical viewpoint. 85 words, one paragraph, at the end. I'm glad it's @jaivirdi.com's viewpoint. And there should be so many more too! There is NO shortage of similar viewpoints from DHH people. They should be amplified!
NPR@npr.org · 3mo agoThe treatment, developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, is for a very rare form of deafness. But it represents a medical milestone. n.pr/4sR4fyc
Proud to announce Spring 2026’s What Is Research Now? from Paul Mellon Ctr, co-convened by Sria Chatterjee, Kenny Fries, & myself. DISABLED LEGACIES: BEYOND ACCESS AND INCLUSION www.britishart.ac.uk/about/news/w... 26-28 Feb & 26-28 Mar 2026 @jaivirdi.com @syrusmarcusware.bsky.social many more ✨
Last was "Hearing Happiness" by @jaivirdi.com, who brilliantly illustrates the history of deafness "cures", showing how quack cures seamlessly blended with science and the ableism/techno-solutionism underlying them Highly recommend Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (6/6)
Hearing Happiness
Weaving together lyrical history and personal memoir, Virdi powerfully examines society’s—and her own—perception of life as a deaf person in America. At the age of four, Jaipreet Virdi’s world went si...
press.uchicago.edu
New update! I'm a #deaf historian of #histSTM and #DisabilityHistory at the University of Victoria. I think & write about disability technologies & medical/scientific authority. Latest book: Echoes of Care (@mcgillqueensup.bsky.social) www.mqup.ca/echoes-of-ca...
Dr. Jaipreet Virdi
historian of medicine, technology, and disability
jaivirdi.com
Eight hours work, eight hours rest, eight hours for what you will. Happy May Day.
I would add that they don't actually understand that HE is an industry, that it can actually collapse, that academic jobs are real jobs, that actual people will be unemployed, and will struggle to find alternative employment. That a shuttered uni takes down a city the same as a shuttered factory
Just thinking of all the people I’ve seen targeted by Alabama legislators over the years — undocumented immigrants, transgender Alabamians and their families — who still walked into the Statehouse, looked lawmakers in the face and told them they were wrong.
Hunter Walker@hunterw.bsky.social · last yr.I have never experienced this much reticence and fear from all manner of sources
Dear scholars, scientists, doctors and advocates - we need your voices and expertise more than ever. If there was ever a time to bring the Ivory Tower right into the middle of the Public Square, it's now.
David M. Perry@lollardfish.bsky.social · last yr.Yesterday RFK Jr said we will know the causes of autism by September then eliminate the contaminants (or something). Today is the day you pitch local media to say: here’s what we know, it’s complicated, RFK Jr is lying. File by Monday morning.
There has been so much devastation, but for my communities this is especially devastating. I cannot overstate how much we owe to the Office of Digital Humanities & the incredible people who have worked there. The work won’t end, but it will be severely curtailed
P. Gabrielle Foreman@profgabrielle.bsky.social · last yr.The NEH Digital Humanities office housed people doing amazing work and connecting and supporting DH ecosystems in ways many of will never be able to chart or fully appreciate. Is there a way we can honor them at the ASA or MLA or AHA or. . .
I wrote about this a bit in my last book but it really shakes me that a defining feature of this catastrophic era is that we just keep going to work. We work through pandemics, we work through natural disasters, we work through economic calamity, we work through coups, we work, we work, we work.
I don’t understand how we so quickly forgot the supply shock lessons of Covid. Do people not remember what it was like to just not be able to get ahold of stuff required for daily existence? I am telling you, manufacturers that can’t absorb these tariffs are going to simply stop assembly lines.
This! Research shows that protests 1) raise awareness, 2) empower people (especially the disadvantaged), and 3) exert pressure on elites. Anyone saying they don’t work is unfamiliar with the research and the history of movement building.
Laura@tutusntinyhats.bsky.social · last yr.Less complaining about how big rallies don't do anything, more brainstorming about how to activate their attendees to get involved with targeted campaigns, direct action, and mutual aid.
“Tubman’s photograph is now gone. In its place are images of Postal Service stamps that highlight “Black/White cooperation” in the secret network and that feature Tubman among abolitionists of both races.” wapo.st/4jdXL8m
Amid anti-DEI push, National Park Service rewrites history of Underground Railroad
Since Trump took office, the park service, an agency charged with preserving American history, has changed how its website describes key moments from slavery to Jim Crow
wapo.st
Can we get more of this? “The Japanese American National Museum will ‘scrub nothing,’ Fujioka said, and instead will highlight the importance of DEI. “Our community is based on diversity, equity is guaranteed to us in the Constitution, and inclusion is what we believe in,” Fujioka said.
Japanese American National Museum takes a stand against DOGE cuts to NEH
The National Endowment for the Humanities warned museums across the country that it was slashing funding, including money previously pledged to places such as LACMA and the Japanese American National ...
latimes.com
Absolutely tired of the psychodrama of one country being the problem of the entire planet.
My sweet, precious Bennie boy, my little deafie shadow...always in my arms. I miss you.
We lost our sweet Ben. There are no words to express our heartbreak.
We lost our sweet Ben. There are no words to express our heartbreak.
any author who gets on the side of “libgen is bad” goes on my “i will pirate you even when i have a job” list
being an indie bookseller in the helltimes has felt both very stable and very stabilizing, and part of me wishes everyone could be on my side of the counter for a little while, because I think it would help some of you be a little less cynical and doomy right now. so here is my VERY anecdotal data:
