What’s Normal? The Anthropology of Disability with Tom Pearson, Ph.D.

What does it mean to be human? Who counts as a human being and why? Anthropologist Tom Pearson has been asking these questions for a living for a long time, and then his daughter was born and diagnosed with Down syndrome, prompting him to ask the questions all over again in his book An Ordinary Future. 

Amy Julia and Tom discuss:

• Normalcy, disability, and the human experience
• Cultural perceptions of disability and the historical context of eugenics and institutionalization 
• How prenatal testing influences societal views of disability
• Interdependence and its relationship to the human experience
• The ways disability is a source of innovation and community, not just an inevitability

FREE RESOURCE: 10 Ways to Move Toward a Good Future {especially for families with disability}

Guest Bio:

Tom Pearson is a cultural anthropologist with wide-ranging interests in the fields of environmental justice and disability studies. He teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where he also chairs the social science department. His writing has appeared in numerous scholarly journals and other public outlets. The birth of his daughter Michaela and her diagnosis with Down syndrome thrust him into an unfamiliar world of disability and difference. His book An Ordinary Future: Margaret Mead, the Problem of Disability, and a Child Born Different examines this experience in relation to Margaret Mead's path to disability rights activism. It confronts the dominant ideas, disturbing contradictions, and dramatic transformations that have shaped our perspectives on disability over the last century.

Connect Online:

Website | Twitter

On the Podcast:

• Washington Post: A mystery illness stole their kids’ personalities. These moms fought for answers.
• An Ordinary Future: Margaret Mead, the Problem of Disability, and a Child Born Different by Thomas Pearson

TRANSCRIPT: amyjuliabecker.com/tom-pearson/

YouTube Channel: video with closed captions

Let’s Reimagine the Good Life together. Find out more at amyjuliabecker.com.

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Thanks for listening!