I Was Brave Today: Expanding my Social Scholarship

Today's blog post won't be very long. I finally got up the nerve to contact two scholars on disability studies or blindness in literature, and I'm hoping that these efforts work out well. I feel like I was too nervous to do a good job introducing myself and my topic, but here are the two people I emailed. I hope they write back so I can reassure them that I'm not as silly as I may have sounded the first time around.

I wish I had thought ahead and used a fountain pen.
 But I was stuck with email.
Photo credit TMAB2003

Hannah Thompson of Blind Spot

Dr. Thompson studies post-Revolution French literature and has been keeping this blog on cultural manifestations of blindness for about a year. I emailed her this morning specifically about how she, as a legally blind woman, interprets literature that she loves in spite of the way blindness is portrayed in it. I'm really hoping to hear back from her, but I'm nervous.

I found her site through Ice Rocket, which is a way cooler tool than I thought it would be.

Julia Miele Rodas

Dr. Rodas doesn't necessarily specialize in blindness, but she does list disability studies as one of her main research interests. I mostly contacted her because she's teaching a class right now about disability in literature. I asked her if maybe she could put me in touch with some of her students who might be studying blindness, so I'm hoping that works out! It would be fun to talk with people at the same stage of research as me.
Syllabus for her class.

So, sorry this was short, but I spent most of my research this morning just mustering the courage to send those emails.