Stories of the 'Intellectually Disabled': An Investigation of Narratives Representing the Intellectually Disabled and Their Effects on Non-Disabled Adolescent Readers

This interdisciplinary research project examines the ways that fictional and autobiographical narratives represent the intellectually disabled, and how those narratives contribute to the impressions and feelings of the non-disabled towards this disabled population. The project, funded jointly by the Academy of Finland and the Department of Modern Languages of the University of Helsinki, runs from September 1, 2011, to August 31, 2014. Preliminary research for the project began in January of 2009 and has been advanced, in part, through the conference presentations that are listed in this database, as well as through a course that I taught for the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Helsinki in the spring of 2010, "Disability Studies and Literature." An article related to this research appeared in the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies in the summer of 2011.