Affiliate Event: Disability and the American Civil War
Reeder Lecture Series, Youngstown State University
When: March 18, 2021 5:30 PM
Where: Zoom
From Gone with the Wind to Mercy Street, Civil War pop culture is full of gory amputations. Magazines and newspapers from the war era are littered with patriotic stories, illustrations, and songs full of sentimental praise for the sacrifices of the ’empty sleeves.’ Indeed, amputation has become shorthand for Civil War disability–but that shorthand leaves an awful lot out. In this talk, Sarah Handley-Cousins will discuss how reevaluating definitions of disability can shift what we think we know about the bodily toll exacted by the Civil War.
Sarah Handley-Cousins is a clinical assistant professor of history and associate director of the Center for Disability Studies at the University of Buffalo. She is the author of Bodies in Blue: Disability in the Civil War North, published by the University of Georgia Press in 2019. In addition, she is a produce of “Dig: A History Podcast” and editor for the history blog “Nursing Clio.”
This event is sponsored by the Reeder Endowment, Youngstown State University Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Melnick Medical Museum, and Office of Veterans Affairs