‘Women in history have been made meaningful through the efforts of a generation of historians who have (and continue to) work in innovate ways to reveal previously concealed histories. I continue in this tradition by highlighting the ways in which women matter to disability history…’
To read more check out my blog post for the Women’s History Network available here –
You can still watch myself and Professor Jaipreet Virdi talk about the history of hearing aids for the inaugural Hidden in Heritage Festival.
The video is available on Professor Virdi’s website- here.
This has been such a long time coming. I started thinking and researching some of the content of this book over six years ago and it feels so thrilling to see it and hold it for the first time! It is available to buy from publishers MUP here and with free delivery from Amazon. If you would prefer to read it online then it is also available here for free!
Use this link to get 50% off Measuring Difference: Numbering Normal. At only £12.50, this is incredibly cheap for an academic book. This discount also works on lots of other great disability history titles from Manchester University Press and is available until July 24th! Stock up!
I’m pleased to share the news I’ve received The Disability History Association 2020 Outstanding Journal Article/Book Award for my paper, “The Categorisation of Hearing Loss in Inter-War Telephony,” which is published in History and Technology (2019)!
2-3PM (GMT) Virtual Event with Jaipreet Virdi
OBJECTS OF CONCEALMENT AND POWER
Early modern hearing devices were grand feats of mechanical ingenuity. Some were built to be as large as a house; they were hardly practical, or personal objects for aiding hearing. By the nineteenth century, the design shifted and hearing devices were designed to be conspicuous, concealed in the body or masked as furniture: urns, fans, walking canes, and headbands contained cleverly obscured trumpets. Using examples of historical hearing devices, this talk discusses the socio-cultural context that was driving the concealment features of some of these designs and why, despite the variability of models, only the more expensive objects have survived to this day. How does the perseverance of certain objects end up skewing the story we are telling? Exploring the materiality of our hidden hearing heritage, we also explore the stories of people who used these devices, some of whom wielded their ear trumpets not as objects of stigma or concealment, but rather, as objects of power.
