New Book! Head Above Water – Shahd Alshammari

Book cover for Head above Water by Shahd Alshammari

Those who survive know that there is a story to tell.

“Shahd’s…sensuous prose explores the manipulation of memory, the question of time, and gender politics…intricacies of love, …body, motherhood, the pervasive power of language, the power of women’s education, and synergy between Professor and student. It is a brave book.” – Jokha Alharthi, Author of Celestial Bodies, winner of the International Man Booker Prize

“An important piece of life writing – Shahd Alshammari’s memoir breaks new ground in representing the lives of disabled Arab women.” – Dr. Roxanne Douglas, University of Warwick

#MultipleSclerosis #womensbodies #health #nonfiction #memoir #coping #healing #survival #family #friendship #MiddleEasternCulture #disability

Head Above Water takes us into a space of intimate conversations on illness and society’s stigmatization of disabled bodies. We are invited in to ask the big questions about life, loss, and the place of the other. The narrative builds a bridge that reminds us of our common humanity and weaves the threads that tie us all together. Through conversations about women’s identities, bodies, and our journeys through life, we arrive at a politics of love, survival, and hope.Author: Shahd Alshammari has Multiple Sclerosis. After gaining her PhD in the UK, Alshammari became an Assistant Professor of Literature in Kuwait. Her research interests focus on women with mental illness in literature. Alshammari is especially interested in the concept of hybridity, having been born to a Bedouin father and a Palestinian mother. She is also interested in Disability Studies and the correlation of disability studies with identity in the Arab world, having been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at the age of 18.

• Engaging and enriching understanding of illness and disability

• Provides a greater understanding of the Arab world and illness in the Middle East

• Author lives with Multiple Sclerosis and has experienced living with disability herself

• The book deals with relationships and discrimination in the context of disability

• Deals with topical issues like women’s bodies, women’s health issues, identities, family, friendships, cultural taboos; misogyny; Middle Eastern culture

• Emphasizes the importance of human connection and each of our personal stories

Hardback/ Paperback

978-1-911107-39-2 /978-1911107-40-8

30 May 2022

£24.99 / £10.99

EBook / Audiobook

978-1-911107-41-5/ 978-1-911107-42-2

30 May 2022

£9.99 / £24.99

Market General/Trade

Subject: Memoir, Disability, Medical Humanities

All Worldwide Rights, Excluding Arabic Rights Are Available.

@neemtreepress @neemtreepress

neemtreepresswww.neemtreepress.com

Foreign rights contact Wampe de Veer at b.lit.agency@gmail.com   For US & Canada and select translation rights contact: Emily Randle at emily@randleeditorial.co.uk   Orders to:   UK,      Europe,      and      Rest      of      World:      Casemate      UK Tel: +44 (0)1865 241249 Email: trade@casematepublishers.co.uk

DRF Event 6! May 9th join Toni Paxford and Shahd Alshammari for their talks on “Crip time and disability” and “Writing Disability and Narrating Pain: A Middle Eastern Perspective”

Time: 2-4pm

Presenter 1, Name: Toni Paxford

Presenter 2, Name: Shahd Alshammari

To register: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/drf-seminar-series-20212022-event-6-tickets-306289378777

Talk 1, Title: Crip time and Disability

Talk 1, Abstract:

In this talk I will share the findings of my undergraduate research which examined how youth and community work practitioners in a small organisation understand the concept of crip time.

The research focused on the three research questions: What do practitioners understand about crip time theory; How does crip time theory effect practitioners’ practice; and how can practitioners use crip time theory to inform their practices with young people with invisible illnesses. The data was collected through using insider, action, qualitative research methods, whilst the literature utilised a plethora of different sources including disability studies and youth and community work literature.

In this talk I will discuss my methods, findings, and recommendations in order to continue the conversation around crip time and youth work as well as devise a tangible way forward to encourage and promote positive change in practices.

Talk 2, Title: Writing Disability and Narrating Pain: A Middle Eastern Perspective

Talk 2, Abstract: In this talk, I discuss Disability Studies from a non-Western model. Disability Studies is almost unheard of in the MENA region. As a scholar living with disability, I have paved the way throughout exploring how disability features in literature, Middle Eastern television and pop culture, and I have also written the first memoir from the MENA region about disability and academic ableism. I share the process of writing disability and discuss how Western publishers received the work. I will examine some of these responses critically to explore how disability from a non-western perspective is received both in the West and the MENA region. A personal perspective is offered to navigate this complex terrain and I conclude my talk with an excerpt from Head Above Water: Reflections on Illness (Neem Tree Press, London, 2022).

Last Chance to get Tickets! DRF Event 5! April 22nd, 2-4pm. Join Anna Slebioda and Tekla Babyak for their talks on “Edith Stein`s philosophy as a new framework for disability studies” and “Authoring Access: Navigating Scholarly Publishing with Disabilities”

Date: April 22nd 2022

Time: 2-4pm

Presenter 1, Name: Anna Slebioda

Presenter 2, Name: Tekla Babyak

To register: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/drf-seminar-series-20212022-event-5-tickets-306284815127

Talk 1, Title: Edith Stein`s philosophy as a new framework for disability studies

Talk 1, Abstract:

Edith Stein was a Jewish woman – philosopher who converted into Catholic and became a nun. However, she died in a concentration camp along with other Jewish people. This indicates her faithfulness to primary identity. –

This as well as her academic work, for instance on woman and her place in the society provide a new framework for analysing femininity in disability.

The presentation covers biographical facts as well as summary of Edith Stein`s philosophy. These elements are next linked to analyses from disability studies area so that at the end a novel analytical framework is presented.

Talk 2, Title: Authoring Access: Navigating Scholarly Publishing with Disabilities

Talk 2, Abstract:

Disability accommodations for academic authors are unauthorized. Submission guidelines for book proposals and journal articles never offer any way to request accommodations. Indeed, disabled authors have no legal right to receive accommodations. Academic writing falls outside the capitalist purview of the ADA, which only covers paid work.

How, then, might disabled authors advocate for accessibility? What strategies could be used to communicate access needs when submitting work to peer-reviewed academic venues? These questions are large, even overwhelming, in the face of the ableist rigidity of the scholarly publishing industry. I will approach these questions through a personal case study: my self-advocacy for disability accommodations when submitting my work for academic publication.

In this case study, I theorize my positionality as an academic writer who has multiple sclerosis. One of my MS symptoms is an anxiety disorder caused by neurological damage to the fear centers in my brain. The disability accommodation that I need is for the editors and the peer reviewers to be encouraging and supportive when giving me feedback. My current strategy is to contact editors about my access needs before submitting my work to them. I do not send them my work unless they commit to honoring my access needs.

These interactions subvert power hierarchies in a potentially liberatory way. I disrupt (and “crip”) the standard script for author-editor interactions, for my initial exchanges with editors are about my access needs rather than my manuscript. Thus, during these initial exchanges, editors end up hearing more about my disability than about my academic research. Some editors have responded well to this dynamic, while others have refused to take my access needs seriously. What emerges from these interactions is the difficulty, but also the hopeful potential, of author(iz)ing one’s own disability accommodations as an academic writer.

Biographical information

Tekla Babyak (PhD, Musicology, Cornell, 2014) is an independent musicologist with multiple sclerosis. The ableist workforce has prevented her from finding any form of stable employment. Currently based in Davis, CA, she is an advocate for the inclusion of disabled independent scholars in academia.

Her work falls broadly into two categories: disability activism in musicology, and research on 19th-century musical aesthetics. As discussed in her Current Musicology article “My Intersecting Quests as a Disabled Independent Scholar,” her activist work combines practical and philosophical ideas about how to uplift disabled voices in music studies. Her musicological research interests include hermeneutics, disability studies, and German and French aesthetics. Recent and forthcoming publications include chapters in Historians Without Borders (Routledge) and Rethinking Brahms (Oxford University Press).

DRF Event 5! Friday April 22nd, 2-4pm. Join Anna Slebioda and Tekla Babyak for their talks around “Edith Stein`s philosophy as a new framework for disability studies” and “Authoring Access: Navigating Scholarly Publishing with Disabilities”

Time: 2-4pm

Presenter 1, Name: Anna Slebioda

Presenter 2, Name: Tekla Babyak

To register: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/drf-seminar-series-20212022-event-5-tickets-306284815127

Talk 1, Title: Edith Stein`s philosophy as a new framework for disability studies

Talk 1, Abstract:

Edith Stein was a Jewish woman – philosopher who converted into Catholic and became a nun. However, she died in a concentration camp along with other Jewish people. This indicates her faithfulness to primary identity. –

This as well as her academic work, for instance on woman and her place in the society provide a new framework for analysing femininity in disability.

The presentation covers biographical facts as well as summary of Edith Stein`s philosophy. These elements are next linked to analyses from disability studies area so that at the end a novel analytical framework is presented.

Talk 2, Title: Authoring Access: Navigating Scholarly Publishing with Disabilities

Talk 2, Abstract:

Disability accommodations for academic authors are unauthorized. Submission guidelines for book proposals and journal articles never offer any way to request accommodations. Indeed, disabled authors have no legal right to receive accommodations. Academic writing falls outside the capitalist purview of the ADA, which only covers paid work.

How, then, might disabled authors advocate for accessibility? What strategies could be used to communicate access needs when submitting work to peer-reviewed academic venues? These questions are large, even overwhelming, in the face of the ableist rigidity of the scholarly publishing industry. I will approach these questions through a personal case study: my self-advocacy for disability accommodations when submitting my work for academic publication.

In this case study, I theorize my positionality as an academic writer who has multiple sclerosis. One of my MS symptoms is an anxiety disorder caused by neurological damage to the fear centers in my brain. The disability accommodation that I need is for the editors and the peer reviewers to be encouraging and supportive when giving me feedback. My current strategy is to contact editors about my access needs before submitting my work to them. I do not send them my work unless they commit to honoring my access needs.

These interactions subvert power hierarchies in a potentially liberatory way. I disrupt (and “crip”) the standard script for author-editor interactions, for my initial exchanges with editors are about my access needs rather than my manuscript. Thus, during these initial exchanges, editors end up hearing more about my disability than about my academic research. Some editors have responded well to this dynamic, while others have refused to take my access needs seriously. What emerges from these interactions is the difficulty, but also the hopeful potential, of author(iz)ing one’s own disability accommodations as an academic writer.

Biographical information

Tekla Babyak (PhD, Musicology, Cornell, 2014) is an independent musicologist with multiple sclerosis. The ableist workforce has prevented her from finding any form of stable employment. Currently based in Davis, CA, she is an advocate for the inclusion of disabled independent scholars in academia.

Her work falls broadly into two categories: disability activism in musicology, and research on 19th-century musical aesthetics. As discussed in her Current Musicology article “My Intersecting Quests as a Disabled Independent Scholar,” her activist work combines practical and philosophical ideas about how to uplift disabled voices in music studies. Her musicological research interests include hermeneutics, disability studies, and German and French aesthetics. Recent and forthcoming publications include chapters in Historians Without Borders (Routledge) and Rethinking Brahms (Oxford University Press).