Susan Wendell

Susan Wendell
Name	Susan Wendell
Birth date	1945
Birth place	United States
Occupation	Philosopher, activist, author
Notable works	The Rejected Body; The Politics of Disability

Susan Wendell is an American philosopher, feminist theorist, and disability studies scholar known for contributions to discussions of embodiment, illness, and social models of disability. Her work bridges feminist theory, phenomenology, bioethics, and social justice, engaging with debates in medical ethics, literary studies, and public policy through teaching, writing, and activism.

Early life and education

Wendell was born in the United States and educated in institutions associated with Harvard University, University of California, Columbia University, Yale University, Princeton University, Stanford University, University of Chicago, Brown University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Duke University and other prominent centers of higher learning. During formative years she encountered the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, including connections to National Organization for Women, Students for a Democratic Society, American Civil Liberties Union, The Feminists, Women's Liberation Movement, and influences from thinkers associated with Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler and Julia Kristeva. Her education intersected with debates prominent at Cornell University, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Toronto, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and London School of Economics.

Academic career and positions

Wendell has held teaching and research positions in departments and programs linked to Smith College, Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Syracuse University, Rutgers University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Washington, and University of Illinois. She participated in interdisciplinary collaborations with centers like Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, King's College London, University College London, McGill University, University of British Columbia, and Australian National University. Her roles included visiting scholar, lecturer, and research affiliate within programs such as Women's Studies Program, Philosophy Department, Bioethics Center, Disability Studies Program, Sociology Department, Public Health Schools, Comparative Literature Department, History Department, and Political Science Department at a variety of institutions.

Major works and philosophy

Wendell's major publications include the influential monograph The Rejected Body, articles in journals associated with Hypatia, Signs, Journal of Medical Ethics, Social Science & Medicine, Philosophy & Public Affairs, Bioethics, Ethics, Philosophy Today, Radical Philosophy, and chapters in edited volumes published by presses such as Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Princeton University Press, University of Chicago Press, Columbia University Press, Stanford University Press, and MIT Press. She synthesizes perspectives from phenomenology as practiced by Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas with feminist insights from Adrienne Rich, bell hooks, Gloria Steinem, Carol Gilligan, Iris Marion Young, Nancy Fraser and Patricia Hill Collins. Wendell critiques biomedical models associated with institutions like World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, and American Medical Association, advocating an integrated approach that foregrounds lived experience and structural determinants addressed by scholars linked to Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum, Michael Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu.

Disability theory and activism

Wendell advanced critiques of the individual/medical model and developed arguments consonant with the social model of disability promoted by activists and theorists connected to Disabled Students Movement, Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation, Disability Rights Movement, American Association of People with Disabilities, National Council on Independent Living, ADAPT, and policy debates around Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. She engaged with disability activists and scholars such as Tom Shakespeare, Simi Linton, Lennard J. Davis, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Ludwig Wittgenstein and David T. Mitchell in conferences at venues like American Philosophical Association, Society for Disability Studies, National Women's Studies Association, Modern Language Association, American Sociological Association and Eastern Sociological Society. Her activism intersected with legal and policy forums, including casework involving United States Supreme Court, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Movement institutions, and advocacy efforts around Medicare, Medicaid, Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Social Security Administration, Education for All Handicapped Children Act and social welfare organizations.

Influence and reception

Wendell's work influenced interdisciplinary scholarship spanning Feminist Theory, Disability Studies, Bioethics, Medical Humanities, Critical Theory, Queer Theory, Postcolonial Studies, Critical Race Theory, and debates within programs at Brown University, Yale University, Harvard University, Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, New York University, Princeton University, Duke University, Northwestern University and University of Chicago. Reviews and citations appeared in outlets connected to Times Literary Supplement, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, New York Review of Books, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and leading academic journals. Critics and supporters alike situated her alongside scholars such as Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, Iris Marion Young, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Lennard J. Davis and Simi Linton.

Selected awards and honors

Wendell received recognition from organizations and institutions including American Philosophical Association, Society for Disability Studies, National Women's Studies Association, American Association of University Women, Guggenheim Foundation, Fulbright Program, Rockefeller Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Library of Congress fellowship programs, and honors from universities such as Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Michigan, University of California, Oxford University and Cambridge University.

Category:American philosophers Category:Disability studies scholars