Monday October 25, 7-9 p.m., Textor 102 “Meditations on a Bullet”
Dr. Noam Ostrander, Assistant Professor in the MSW Program in Social Work at DePaul University, will present his research on constructions of identity, masculinity, race, sexuality, and self among former gang members, primarily African American and Latino, on Chicago’s West Side, who live with violently acquired spinal cord injuries. Dr. Ostrander’s scholarship pulls together complicated issues of intersections of identity, the roles of race and masculinity in shaping or obstructing disability identity, and the powerful life stories of these men. Dr. Ostrander has co-edited a collection of essays on disability and performance, as well as publishing in major journals in the social sciences.