nick rattray
My dissertation
research focuses on the experience of disabled Ecuadorians. My
anthropological perspective explores the political economy of
disability, structural violence, biopolitics, and the spatial
dimensions of accessibility.
Title:
Disability, Biosociality, and Spaces of Exclusion in Cuenca, Ecuador
Abstract: This ethnographic study explores the socio-political emergence of
people with physical and visual disabilities in Cuenca, Ecuador. Since
the 1990s, disabled Ecuadorians have moved from a state of social and
physical isolation to wider societal participation, fueled in part by
inclusive policy from biopolitical state institutions. Many have joined
grassroots organization through biosocial networks based on the
collective identity of shared impairment. However, their incorporation
into the labor market, educational systems, and public sphere has been
uneven and impeded by underlying attitudinal, gender, spatial, and
cultural barriers. Through life history interviews and participant
observation, the project documents the range of hierarchies and
diversity within the disabled community.
Participants: I worked primarily with three groups of
people with disabilities in Ecuador: an association of people with
physical disabilities, an association of people with visual
disabilities, and a group of wheelchair basketball athletes.
Location: I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in 2006 and 2008 in Cuenca and
Quito, Ecuador.
Support: I am grateful for the support of the Institute for International
Education for the Fulbright Student Grant, the Fulbright Commission in
Quito, and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona.