Rayna Rapp

“Disability Arts in an Age of Genetic Testing” explores cultural frictions between expansive disability arts and explosive genetic testing in contemporary US culture. The methods of cultural anthropology in conversation with disability arts and humanities are used to research past, present, and future communication across these sectors. There is a growing but under-discussed presence of disability in our culture: the existence of human difference is both celebrated through disability arts and humanities, and its genetic causes interrogated and imagined avoidable in the expansive world of both medical and commercial genetics. This project will be advanced through a partnership with Positive Exposure, researching how the group might expand its compelling photography exhibits and short film projects toward more inclusive conversations engaging an array of disability humanities scholars/activists; while continuing and enhancing its connections with medical scientists and relevant support networks working on cutting-edge genomic knowledge. The goal of this research is to engage humanities resources to spark widespread public conversations of this enduring tension between disability and genetics .