Navigating Disability Stigma in Poland's Changing Cultural Landscape

"""Navigating Disability Stigma in Poland's Changing Cultural Landscape offers an ethnographically rich and theoretically nuanced investigation of disability in Poland. As an exquisitely researched and carefully crafted study, this book reflects Holleman's deep commitment to understanding (dis)ability as a complex articulation between bodies, cultural models, and physical geographies in particular spaces and times. It thus raises a series of provocative and important questions about how we might deepen theories of disability to include more nuanced understandings of culture."" --Sonya Pritzker, University of Alabama ""Dr. Mirjam Holleman has carried out an important study of disability in Poland. To me the most striking aspect of this work is how she successfully integrates the study of an important policy issue--stigma--with her own experiences as a person who, from her personal perspective, would be described as disabled, employing the theory and methods of cognitive anthropology. Theory and method in cognitive anthropology have gotten a bad rap for many years, stemming from the early days of ethnoscience when it was described as 'the study of other people's butterfly collections.' In Dr. Holleman's able hands, this theory and method become nothing less than a tool for understanding that is both subtle and nuanced, as well as a means for advocacy."" --William W. Dressler, University of Alabama ""Mirjam Holleman's insightful exploration of disability in Poland reveals the physical and social dimensions of inclusion and exclusion. Through close observation and personal stories, she helps us relate to the experience of disability while also developing a cross-culturally applicable, replicable, and comparative framework for evaluating stigma. Written with clarity, insight, and humor, the book is a must-read for anyone interested in developing effective policies that enable accessibility for all people."" --Marysia Galbraith, The University of Alabama"