ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter states that the edited volume problematizes dis/ability by examining the strengths and shortcomings of both embodiment and social constructionist approaches while contending that each approach can challenge, complicate, and compensate for the other. This chapter offers two contributions: first, situating critical disabilities studies (CDS) within an intersectionality theory framework that considers the impact of the relationships between dis/abilities and other forms of identity; second, situating a socially constructed, embodied, and intersectional approach in one or more of three disciplines—media studies, critical legal studies (CLS), and the cultural and social histories of embodiment. The chapter begins by exploring the tension and interplay between embodiment and social constructionist approaches to dis/abilities. It suggests that while both approaches reject a medical model of dis/abilities, they do not necessarily agree with each other. Then, the chapter discusses the two contributions that the edited volume makes to CDS. Afterward, it discusses how three disciplines—media studies, CLS, and the cultural and social histories of embodiments—have interrogated and applied these theoretical frameworks and accounted for the tensions between them. The chapter concludes by summarizing the 14 essays collected in the volume.
