ABSTRACT
The authors of this introductory chapter to the handbook have several aims. We feel it is necessary to first provide a historical and political contextualisation of the current diversity of work in disability and sexuality studies. Today’s multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary theoretical approaches did not emerge ex nihilo. Mapping the historical and political contours and development of certain applied and academic perspectives on relevant issues within disability and sexuality is important to understanding what is happening currently. Recognising that this mapping is largely situated within the handbook editors’ Anglo-centric background, we also include sections on the Nordic experience of disability and sexuality issues and the recent work on the sexuality and sexual lives of people within the Global South, much of it by indigenous researchers and scholars. We then discuss several areas of entrenched and emerging focus within critical disability and sexuality studies. We lastly outline the structure of the book, presenting specific introductions to each of the volume’s thematic sections before synopses of individual chapters, and finish with some concluding thoughts.
(disability and sexuality studies, multi-disciplinary research, critical disability studies)
