Category: Disability

• Landscapes of Identity: Accessibility

  A soggy, warm, late fall day. Wind later? I’ve been thinking about accessibility as a contested aspect of landscape. Barriers that inhibit or limit access are inherent aspects of the landscape, and I know that if I go walking there will be areas I can’t navigate due to the mobility challenges I face. Although the…

  Michael Watson PhD

  October 29, 2017

  Disability, Landscape, Stories

  disability, identity, Landscape

• High Holy Days

  Each year, here in New England, Fall creeps down the mountains to the lakes and the ocean. A couple of weeks ago the weather was cool and damp, and our autumn color change was progressing rapidly. Then summer-like warmth and dryness returned and the change stopped abruptly, replaced by browning leaves and sudden leaf drop.…

  Michael Watson PhD

  September 24, 2017

  Disability, native american, Social issues, spirituality

  autumn, climate change, High Holy Days, Social Change

• An Osprey’s View

  

  A wild couple of days of storm have passed. Now the fog and wind are all that remain of the tempest. The weather seems to reflect the national mood, creating a milieu that is mythic. Somewhere out there, in the deep fog, one imagines people stirring cauldrons and chanting ancient phrases.

  Michael Watson PhD

  September 7, 2017

  Disability, Nature

  disability, nature

• Embodying Story: Part Two

  

  Sometime in my thirties I became part of a very active Playback Theatre troupe. Playback is an improvisational form in which individuals from the audience tell personal stories and the actors on stage seek to faithfully play the story back to the teller. Doing Playback well is a remarkably challenging practice, one filled with opportunities…

  Michael Watson PhD

  August 25, 2017

  Arts, Disability, First Nations, performance, Shamanism

  healing, Playback Theatre, Shamanism, stories