Jillian Weise, a nationally-known author, speaker and disability rights activist will be featured at UW-Eau Claire’s ninth annual Schneider Disability Issues Forum on Thursday (Oct. 26) in Phillips Recital Hall of the Haas Fine Arts Center.
The program, “Permission and Provocation,” is scheduled for 5 p.m. It is free and open to the public.
Weise also is a poet, performance artist and playwright. She is the author of two poetry collections, “The Amputee’s Guide to Sex” and the award-winning “The Book of Goodbyes,” as well as a novel, “The Colony.” She is an associate professor of English at Clemson University.
Her writing has appeared in many publications, including the literary magazine A Public Space, The Huffington Post and The New York Times.
An amputee who has worn a prosthetic leg for over 30 years, Weise has self-identified as a cyborg since she began wearing a leg with a computerized knee. She discusses that identification in her New York Times essays “Going Cyborg” and “The Dawn of the Tryborg.”
She also produces performance art through her character Tipsy Tullivan, addressing issues of ableism in a series of satirical YouTube videos.
In her “Permission and Provocation” presentation, Weise will give wandering, inquiring individuals with disabilities permission to be whoever they are and identify however they wish. She weaves biographical details and the history of disability and writing into a thorough examination of taboo and complex topics.
An excerpt from her talk reads, “You can live in uncertainty. So go on and be anything and live in mystery. I give you permission. Take it.”
Through the Schneider Disability Issues Forum, renowned authors and experts come to campus each year to address accessibility issues for people living with disabilities. The event was established by Dr. Katherine Schneider, UW-Eau Claire psychologist emerita and author, who has been blind since birth.
An interpreter for the deaf and captioning will be provided for Weise’s presentation. Her books will be available for purchase and signing after the program.
The Schneider Disability Issues Forum is co-sponsored by the UW-Eau Claire Foundation; the Chippewa Valley Book Festival; and UW-Eau Claire’s College of Education and Human Sciences, the Services for Students with Disabilities Office, and the Education Studies 385 course.
Parking is available on campus in any F or S parking stall. The Human Sciences and Services lot and the Water Street lot are closest to the event location in the Haas Fine Arts Center. (See campus map for parking lot locations.) Accessible parking can be arranged through Debra Lang at 715-836-5607 or langda@uwec.edu.