Presenting: Poor Farm Pathways
Content: insanity diagnosis; eugenics; Bedlam; Snake Pit; “wellness farms,” animal confinement
Highlights
Conversations with disability studies scholars, whose work intersects with poor farm themes: medical diagnosis, what design practices tell us about bodies and the built environment, and unexpected connections between disability and animals. Join Emerson to hear about film & cultural memory, how societal ideas about work shaped psychiatric environments, and the potentially surprising narrative of rural vice. The social history of poor farms meets up with a 2024 U.S. Presidential candidate through the idea of “wellness farms.”
Conclusion
What do we really know about rural histories? Fear of vice and difference in 20th century rural histories have much to teach about the surprising forces behind meanings of “disability.”
Transcript
For a full transcript of this episode, visit: disabilityecologiespodcast.buzzsprout.com
Credits
Episode written and narrated by Emerson Cram, University of Iowa. Recorded with Riverside FM. Production and sound editing by Emerson Cram.
All media clips are used for educational purposes only.
Von Gogan—Trailers. “Bedlam-Horror-1946-clip.”
Seeker Rising, “The Snake Pit ‘insane to sane.’”
Kiera Butler, “RFK Jr. Wants to Send People Addicted to Antidepressants to Government ‘Wellness Farms,’” Mother Jones 24 July 2024.
“We Would Like to Drink,” from the Harry Oster Folk Music Collection, Rita Benton Music Library, UI Libraries. Thanks to Katie Buehner and Christine Burke.
Typing 5 lines.wav by soundslikewillem -- https://freesound.org/s/193971/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0
Funding
Research, writing, and production have benefitted from generous support from multiple sources, including: the National Communication Association’s Karl R. Wallace Memorial Award; UI OVPR Arts and Humanities Initiative Standard Grant; UI Provost Investment in Strategic Priorities; UI College of Liberal Arts DSHB Humanities Scholar; CLAS Summer Humanities Award.
Special Thanks
With thanks to Maura De Cicco; UIowa Departments of Communication Studies, Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies, and American Studies (Especially Angie Looney, Kembrew McLeod, Eric Vázquez, Naomi Greyser, & Hallie Abelman); Julie Watkins; State Historical Society of Iowa (especially Hang Nguyen, Allison Johnson, and Anu Tiwari); Sarah Keen; V Fixmer-Oraiz; Rebecca Dewing; 2024 Colby Summer Institute in Environmental Humanities Seminar; Claire Fox; Teresa Mangum; Jennifer New; Phaedra C. Pezzullo; Constance Gordon; and Jesse Waggoner.
Audience Participation
