Prof Lisa Diedrich‘s new book – Illness Politics & Hashtag Activism – is now available from the University of Minnesota Press. This small-but-mighty volume shows how illness on social media provides insight into the struggle against ableism and stigma and for care and access. Join us on Wed, Nov 20th at the Humanities Institute to hear more from Prof Diedrich and celebrate the book’s release!
Published as part of the “Forerunners: Ideas First” series, Illness Politics & Hashtag Activism embraces the spirit of the series – “where intense analysis, questioning, and speculation take the lead.” Like the other volumes on this exciting series, Prof Diedrich’s new book is an open access publication, so you can read it online if you’d like!
Here’s the official description from the publisher:
Illness Politics and Hashtag Activism explores illness and disability in action on social media, analyzing several popular hashtags as examples of how illness figures in recent U.S. politics. Lisa Diedrich shows how illness- and disability-oriented hashtags serve as portals into how and why illness and disability are sites of political struggle and how illness politics is informed by, intersects with, and sometimes stands in for sexual, racial, and class politics. She argues that illness politics is central—and profoundly important—to both mainstream and radical politics, and she investigates the dynamic intersection of media and health and health-activist practices to show the ways their confluence affects our perception and understanding of illness.
On Wed, Nov 20th, at 5:00pm, Prof Diedrich will be giving a talk based on this project at the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook (Rm 1008, Humanities Building). WGSS associate faculty Nancy Tomes will serve as the respondent. This event is open to everyone, so please join us if you can. Click here for more information.