April 7, 2006<\/p>\n
On Friday, April 7, the Center welcomed a large audience of academics and practitioners for a day-long discussion of issues of disability, welfare, and age under the title \u201cIn\/Dependence: Disabililty, Welfare, and Age\u201d organized by Anne Basting<\/strong> (Theater, Center on Age & Community) and Andrea Westlund<\/strong> (Philosophy, Center for Women\u2019s Studies, Fellow 2004-05) through the Center\u2019s call for conference proposals.<\/p>\n Sanford Schram<\/strong> (Social Work, Bryn Mawr) kicked off the symposium with a detailed, data-oriented presentation aimed to reveal the true nature of Florida\u2019s welfare-to-work program and its impact on the people it ostensibly serves. Emphasizing that rather than a roll-back of government, the Florida program represents a roll-out of a different kind of government, Schram discussed the arrival of a \u201cneo-liberal paternalistic state\u201d as a successor to the traditional welfare state originating in the era of the Great Depression. Critical especially of the sanctions regime built into Florida\u2019s system, Schram concluded that welfare reform in this case is not really compassionate: \u201ctough love is just plain tough.\u201d<\/p>\n The next speaker, Eva Feder Kittay<\/strong> (Philosophy, SUNY-Stony Brook), in a probing and sensitive paper, examined the question of what constitutes equal dignity for a severely disabled person. Recognizing the obvious difficulties that severely disabled have in claiming equal dignity, Kittay argued that it is the role of a just society to help all of its members to aquire the necessary attributes required for a dignified life. (Throughout the day, the quest for such a \u201cjust society\u201d emerged one of the central preoccupations of the symposium). One way in which we might begin do so, she suggested, is to locate the source of dignity in the human capacity to care and to need care: \u201cwe are all some mother\u2019s child [and] caring is a conduit of worth.\u201d<\/p>\n The third speaker, Margaret Morganroth Gullette<\/strong> (Women\u2019s Studies Research Center, Brandeis), gave an impassioned account of what she called her \u201cyear from hell\u201d under the title \u201cMy Mother and I Fall.\u201d Her account of the aftermath of her 90-year-old mother\u2019s accident conveyed directly and movingly the obstacle a daughter encounters when called upon to care for an injured elderly mother living in another part of the country. In addition, Gullette raised questions about what she identified as \u201cdecline\u201d or \u201cduty to die\u201d narratives in our society and abroad, suggesting that instead we should move away from the emphasis on cost and burdens and talk more about the possibilities for recovery and quality of life in old age.<\/p>\n Finally, under the guidance of Atwood Gaines<\/strong> (Anthropology, Bioethics, Nursing, and Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve) the audience and speakers further reflected on the state of the welfare state in the United States and abroad. The symposium concluded with an art exhibition and reception and a dance performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" April 7, 2006 On Friday, April 7, the Center welcomed a large audience of academics and practitioners for a day-long discussion of issues of disability, welfare, and age under the title \u201cIn\/Dependence: Disabililty, Welfare, and Age\u201d organized by Anne Basting …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":690,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":43,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"class_list":["post-1953","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n