Kristen Chmielewski

Biography

My dissertation is a historical examination of how narratives of disability affected the careers and experiences of city teachers between 1930 and 1970. My analysis of archival sources revealed that school and city leaders explicitly linked good teaching with lack of a disability. This research explores how schools attempted to define and promote standards of normality in teachers and in students in a way that affected everyone—disabled or nondisabled—in the school system.

Kristen Chmielewski