Brian Watermeyer
Biographic Data
| ID | 630837 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brian Watermeyer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brian |
| FAMILY NAME | Watermeyer |
| SIGNATURE | WATERMEYER B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stellenbosch University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7671-4323 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 93 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The monster at the door
Across markers of difference (race, gender, ethnicity), psychic and material colonization enforces dominant cultural prescripts. The stranger dwells in shadow, caught between abject projections and melancholic demands to strive for all that they are not. One heavily cathected identity marker is disability, which in phantasy supports a reassuringly immutable boundary between the “damaged” and the “whole”. Projective identification positions the di…
The scintillating scholarly contribution of Professor Leslie Swartz
The journal is published for the purpose of advancing scholarship in disability studies and rehabilitation sciences in a uniquely African context. Widely read by scholars, professionals and students, it encourages scholarly exchange between all disciplines and academics from low, middle and high-income countries to work towards the improvement of human development and its practices across the continent
Engaged scholarship, disability and the politics of the personal
The journal is published for the purpose of advancing scholarship in disability studies and rehabilitation sciences in a uniquely African context. Widely read by scholars, professionals and students, it encourages scholarly exchange between all disciplines and academics from low, middle and high-income countries to work towards the improvement of human development and its practices across the continent
Every time I feel down, my family loves to see me do the right things
“Somebody Did Some Work in Your Life”
The article presents some personal reflections on being claimed and commodified as a product of rehabilitation. It focuses, in particular, on the experience of working as a public relations spokesperson and fundraiser for an organization that provides rehabilitation and development services to visually impaired adults. This experience involved a relentless demand to perform, and to collude with a narrative that positioned the author as a creation…
Rehabilitation, the disciplining of the body, and disability identity
This article contributes to the debate in critical rehabilitation studies, focussing on the issue of constructions of disability which may be communicated to people with disability, with implications for self-advocacy and the growth of the disability movement
Health sciences training for disability inclusion
Material aspects of disability inequality, such as access to quality services, housing and employment, are an urgent, worldwide concern. Less recognised though, are psychological layers of prejudice and discrimination, which play a significant role in cementing marginality. Against this backdrop, health practitioners can fill influential roles in shaping the self-identity and citizenship entitlement of people with disabilities. Yet, these profess…
Intersectionality and embodiment
While viewing an intersectional analysis of inequality as fundamental, we published an opinion in this journal (Watermeyer & Swartz, 2023) pointing to how, in practice, it can be (mis)applied in a manner which underestimates the complexity brought by disability's infinite diversity in forms of embodiment.This observation in no way implies that disability, or any other marker of identity for that matter, is somehow intrinsically more significant t…
Disability, trauma, and the place of affect in identity
This paper examines rehabilitation services for visually impaired individuals as, in part, an amplified instantiation of disciplinary social forces maintaining heteronormative, ableist, and neoliberal norms. We problematise traditional rehabilitation's predominantly material focus, which elides experiences that are internal, emotional, relational, and reflective of issues of identity and social belonging, while creating links between gendered and…
Learning together
Despite the need for inclusive education in South Africa, many teachers have not been appropriately trained for the inclusion process for learners with disabilities in classrooms. A consideration of teacher education for inclusive education involves examining both the structural and professional barriers to training that prevent effective implementation. We review the outcomes of a teacher education project in South Africa through three studies t…
Dealing with disability as ‘matter out of place’
Globally, education of children with disabilities increasingly occurs in inclusive school settings, requiring specialised teacher education. Scholars emphasise relational and instrumental skills, to overcome prejudice and exclusion. Visual impairment (VI) is emotionally evocative, presenting particular challenges to inclusion. Using data from in-service teacher education for VI inclusion in South Africa, this theoretical paper explores the person…
Metanarratives of visual impairment rehabilitation
This paper presents findings from a study on blindness discourses found in South African non-profit organisations that provide rehabilitation services to visually impaired adults. The paper investigates what the public relations materials of these organisations communicate about blindness. It also considers the ideological assumptions that blindness discourses reinforce and embed in rehabilitation practice. The primary focus is a discourse analyt…
Disability and the problem of lazy intersectionality
Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality has been used to include different dimensions of difference and exclusion. We suggest here, however, that intersectional analyses may paradoxically further exclude discussions of the impact of disability in interaction with other factors. We outline three ways in which intersectionality may be incorrectly used. First, there is selective intersectionality where only certain forms of exclusion are considered.…
Perspectivas sobre a educação de alunos com deficiência na África do Sul
A África do Sul estabeleceu um sistema de Educação Inclusiva que mantém escolas especiais para atender estudantes que demandam grandes necessidades de apoio e centros de apoio vizinhos às escolas comuns. Embora haja discussão sobre o que agregam ou não as escolas especiais, existem relativamente poucos estudos que se propõem a compartilhar as perspectivas de estudantes dessas escolas. Este estudo baseia-se em entrevistas com 39 estudantes de seis…
Transitioning to a life with disability in rural South Africa
This study contributes to the understanding of the complex predicaments, and sense-making, of persons who have acquired a disability in a rural, impoverished Global South environment
Disability, relationship, and the negotiation of loss
Oppressive stereotypes of invalidity and tragedy have positioned loss and grieving as contested issues in the field of disability studies. Ascriptions of 'denial' are rejected by many disabled people, as a reductive medicalisation of their lived reality. For these and other reasons, this paper asserts that disabled people are afforded limited or awkward social spaces for grief, be it to do with social positioning, embodiment, or any other aspect …
The invisible lockdown
In this autoethnography, BW and I explore the various ways in which my experiences of lockdown during the Coronavirus pandemic are not altogether different from my everyday experiences as a visually impaired person. Further, we make sense of my experience that, notwithstanding the social world's expression of feelings about lockdown and social distancing, my own reactions to disability-imposed lockdown remain unrecognized, invalidated and unseen.…
The Palgrave Handbook of Disability and Citizenship in the Global South
Views from the borderline
Deaf parents; hearing child; CODA; identity; apartheid; South Africa
Impairment, socialization and embodiment
This place is not for children like her’
This paper presents an exploration of my experiences and unique positioning as a blind, White South African woman. It explores the complex intersections of multiple axes of identity in my own experience to do with disability, race, class and language and, in so doing, presents some ideas about the ways in which disability complicates and disturbs simplistic identity categories. It draws, in particular, on the experience of my first year of formal…
A web of gaps
BACKGROUND: In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), limited access to a range of supports means that families often carry primary responsibility for the care of a disabled child. The impact of this responsibility is poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: To present a selective review, critique, and comparison of the prominent areas of research aimed at understanding families with disabled children in the Global South. DESIGN: We compare and criticall…
“I Don’t Have Time for an Emotional Life”
Disablism, Identity and Self
The international disability movement has favoured a political strategy which relies on historical materialism, eschewing subjective aspects of disability. From this perspective, rehabilitationist and psychological constructions of the subjectivities of disabled people are rejected as victim‐blaming pathologisation. Recently, feminist work has begun to explore psychological aspects of the lives of disabled people, within various paradigms. Drawin…
Freedom to read
Even in the digital age, access to literature and other information for people with print impairments remains extremely poor, especially in the developing world. Reading access holds cascading implications for education, economic empowerment, social participation and self-worth. In June 2013 member states of WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization) concluded a landmark treaty to reduce copyright impediments to the dissemination of lite…
Conceptualising the psycho‐emotional aspects of disability and impairment
Recent feminist critics of the social model of disability have pointed towards a danger that disability studies may give relatively little attention to personal and emotional aspects of disablist oppression and impairment. We argue for consideration of the centrality of the distortion of personal and psychic boundaries as a key aspect of oppressive relational dynamics surrounding disability. Within the observer the disturbing psychic evocations o…
Claiming loss in disability
Pervasive representations of disability carry associations with the idea of loss. These have been strongly rejected by the social model movement as stereotyping, which may perpetuate views of disabled people as 'incomplete', 'vulnerable' or needing rehabilitation. Discourses of 'loss', 'acceptance' and 'denial' remain a lens through which disabled persons are misknown. It is posited that ascribed notions of 'loss' serve to maintain feelings of co…
Cyborg anxiety
Disabled people have a history of being viewed as not entirely human. In the age of spare part surgery and increasing sophistication of drugs, there are increasing concerns about what it means to be human, and, in particular, in what distinguishes people from machines. These concerns have clear resonance with anxieties about disability, and with disabled people being seen as not human. Oscar Pistorius is a disabled athlete whose wish to compete a…
Is it possible to create a politically engaged, contextual psychology of disability
Until recently disability studies has ignored questions regarding the psychological nature of oppression. Proponents of the social model have viewed such concerns as diversionary, diluting their emphasis on material and economic barriers to inclusion. This paper argues that the discipline’s role of reflecting and interrogating disablism will remain incomplete and lacking in transformative power without undertaking a psychological conceptualisatio…
Disability and the problem of lazy intersectionality
Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality has been used to include different dimensions of difference and exclusion. We suggest here, however, that intersectional analyses may paradoxically further exclude discussions of the impact of disability in interaction with other factors. We outline three ways in which intersectionality may be incorrectly used. First, there is selective intersectionality where only certain forms of exclusion are considered.…
Disablism, Identity and Self
The international disability movement has favoured a political strategy which relies on historical materialism, eschewing subjective aspects of disability. From this perspective, rehabilitationist and psychological constructions of the subjectivities of disabled people are rejected as victim‐blaming pathologisation. Recently, feminist work has begun to explore psychological aspects of the lives of disabled people, within various paradigms. Drawin…
The invisible lockdown
In this autoethnography, BW and I explore the various ways in which my experiences of lockdown during the Coronavirus pandemic are not altogether different from my everyday experiences as a visually impaired person. Further, we make sense of my experience that, notwithstanding the social world's expression of feelings about lockdown and social distancing, my own reactions to disability-imposed lockdown remain unrecognized, invalidated and unseen.…
Impairment, socialization and embodiment
Dealing with disability as ‘matter out of place’
Globally, education of children with disabilities increasingly occurs in inclusive school settings, requiring specialised teacher education. Scholars emphasise relational and instrumental skills, to overcome prejudice and exclusion. Visual impairment (VI) is emotionally evocative, presenting particular challenges to inclusion. Using data from in-service teacher education for VI inclusion in South Africa, this theoretical paper explores the person…
Metanarratives of visual impairment rehabilitation
This paper presents findings from a study on blindness discourses found in South African non-profit organisations that provide rehabilitation services to visually impaired adults. The paper investigates what the public relations materials of these organisations communicate about blindness. It also considers the ideological assumptions that blindness discourses reinforce and embed in rehabilitation practice. The primary focus is a discourse analyt…
Disability, relationship, and the negotiation of loss
Oppressive stereotypes of invalidity and tragedy have positioned loss and grieving as contested issues in the field of disability studies. Ascriptions of 'denial' are rejected by many disabled people, as a reductive medicalisation of their lived reality. For these and other reasons, this paper asserts that disabled people are afforded limited or awkward social spaces for grief, be it to do with social positioning, embodiment, or any other aspect …
Disability, trauma, and the place of affect in identity
This paper examines rehabilitation services for visually impaired individuals as, in part, an amplified instantiation of disciplinary social forces maintaining heteronormative, ableist, and neoliberal norms. We problematise traditional rehabilitation's predominantly material focus, which elides experiences that are internal, emotional, relational, and reflective of issues of identity and social belonging, while creating links between gendered and…
Conceptualising the psycho‐emotional aspects of disability and impairment
Recent feminist critics of the social model of disability have pointed towards a danger that disability studies may give relatively little attention to personal and emotional aspects of disablist oppression and impairment. We argue for consideration of the centrality of the distortion of personal and psychic boundaries as a key aspect of oppressive relational dynamics surrounding disability. Within the observer the disturbing psychic evocations o…
Cyborg anxiety
Disabled people have a history of being viewed as not entirely human. In the age of spare part surgery and increasing sophistication of drugs, there are increasing concerns about what it means to be human, and, in particular, in what distinguishes people from machines. These concerns have clear resonance with anxieties about disability, and with disabled people being seen as not human. Oscar Pistorius is a disabled athlete whose wish to compete a…
Claiming loss in disability
Pervasive representations of disability carry associations with the idea of loss. These have been strongly rejected by the social model movement as stereotyping, which may perpetuate views of disabled people as 'incomplete', 'vulnerable' or needing rehabilitation. Discourses of 'loss', 'acceptance' and 'denial' remain a lens through which disabled persons are misknown. It is posited that ascribed notions of 'loss' serve to maintain feelings of co…
Is it possible to create a politically engaged, contextual psychology of disability
Until recently disability studies has ignored questions regarding the psychological nature of oppression. Proponents of the social model have viewed such concerns as diversionary, diluting their emphasis on material and economic barriers to inclusion. This paper argues that the discipline’s role of reflecting and interrogating disablism will remain incomplete and lacking in transformative power without undertaking a psychological conceptualisatio…
Freedom to read
Even in the digital age, access to literature and other information for people with print impairments remains extremely poor, especially in the developing world. Reading access holds cascading implications for education, economic empowerment, social participation and self-worth. In June 2013 member states of WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization) concluded a landmark treaty to reduce copyright impediments to the dissemination of lite…
Disablism, Identity and Self
The international disability movement has favoured a political strategy which relies on historical materialism, eschewing subjective aspects of disability. From this perspective, rehabilitationist and psychological constructions of the subjectivities of disabled people are rejected as victim‐blaming pathologisation. Recently, feminist work has begun to explore psychological aspects of the lives of disabled people, within various paradigms. Drawin…
A web of gaps
BACKGROUND: In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), limited access to a range of supports means that families often carry primary responsibility for the care of a disabled child. The impact of this responsibility is poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: To present a selective review, critique, and comparison of the prominent areas of research aimed at understanding families with disabled children in the Global South. DESIGN: We compare and criticall…
“I Don’t Have Time for an Emotional Life”
This place is not for children like her’
This paper presents an exploration of my experiences and unique positioning as a blind, White South African woman. It explores the complex intersections of multiple axes of identity in my own experience to do with disability, race, class and language and, in so doing, presents some ideas about the ways in which disability complicates and disturbs simplistic identity categories. It draws, in particular, on the experience of my first year of formal…
The Palgrave Handbook of Disability and Citizenship in the Global South
Views from the borderline
Deaf parents; hearing child; CODA; identity; apartheid; South Africa
Impairment, socialization and embodiment
Transitioning to a life with disability in rural South Africa
This study contributes to the understanding of the complex predicaments, and sense-making, of persons who have acquired a disability in a rural, impoverished Global South environment
Disability, relationship, and the negotiation of loss
Oppressive stereotypes of invalidity and tragedy have positioned loss and grieving as contested issues in the field of disability studies. Ascriptions of 'denial' are rejected by many disabled people, as a reductive medicalisation of their lived reality. For these and other reasons, this paper asserts that disabled people are afforded limited or awkward social spaces for grief, be it to do with social positioning, embodiment, or any other aspect …
The invisible lockdown
In this autoethnography, BW and I explore the various ways in which my experiences of lockdown during the Coronavirus pandemic are not altogether different from my everyday experiences as a visually impaired person. Further, we make sense of my experience that, notwithstanding the social world's expression of feelings about lockdown and social distancing, my own reactions to disability-imposed lockdown remain unrecognized, invalidated and unseen.…
Learning together
Despite the need for inclusive education in South Africa, many teachers have not been appropriately trained for the inclusion process for learners with disabilities in classrooms. A consideration of teacher education for inclusive education involves examining both the structural and professional barriers to training that prevent effective implementation. We review the outcomes of a teacher education project in South Africa through three studies t…
Dealing with disability as ‘matter out of place’
Globally, education of children with disabilities increasingly occurs in inclusive school settings, requiring specialised teacher education. Scholars emphasise relational and instrumental skills, to overcome prejudice and exclusion. Visual impairment (VI) is emotionally evocative, presenting particular challenges to inclusion. Using data from in-service teacher education for VI inclusion in South Africa, this theoretical paper explores the person…
Metanarratives of visual impairment rehabilitation
This paper presents findings from a study on blindness discourses found in South African non-profit organisations that provide rehabilitation services to visually impaired adults. The paper investigates what the public relations materials of these organisations communicate about blindness. It also considers the ideological assumptions that blindness discourses reinforce and embed in rehabilitation practice. The primary focus is a discourse analyt…
Disability and the problem of lazy intersectionality
Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality has been used to include different dimensions of difference and exclusion. We suggest here, however, that intersectional analyses may paradoxically further exclude discussions of the impact of disability in interaction with other factors. We outline three ways in which intersectionality may be incorrectly used. First, there is selective intersectionality where only certain forms of exclusion are considered.…
Perspectivas sobre a educação de alunos com deficiência na África do Sul
A África do Sul estabeleceu um sistema de Educação Inclusiva que mantém escolas especiais para atender estudantes que demandam grandes necessidades de apoio e centros de apoio vizinhos às escolas comuns. Embora haja discussão sobre o que agregam ou não as escolas especiais, existem relativamente poucos estudos que se propõem a compartilhar as perspectivas de estudantes dessas escolas. Este estudo baseia-se em entrevistas com 39 estudantes de seis…
Disability, trauma, and the place of affect in identity
This paper examines rehabilitation services for visually impaired individuals as, in part, an amplified instantiation of disciplinary social forces maintaining heteronormative, ableist, and neoliberal norms. We problematise traditional rehabilitation's predominantly material focus, which elides experiences that are internal, emotional, relational, and reflective of issues of identity and social belonging, while creating links between gendered and…
“Somebody Did Some Work in Your Life”
The article presents some personal reflections on being claimed and commodified as a product of rehabilitation. It focuses, in particular, on the experience of working as a public relations spokesperson and fundraiser for an organization that provides rehabilitation and development services to visually impaired adults. This experience involved a relentless demand to perform, and to collude with a narrative that positioned the author as a creation…
Rehabilitation, the disciplining of the body, and disability identity
This article contributes to the debate in critical rehabilitation studies, focussing on the issue of constructions of disability which may be communicated to people with disability, with implications for self-advocacy and the growth of the disability movement
Health sciences training for disability inclusion
Material aspects of disability inequality, such as access to quality services, housing and employment, are an urgent, worldwide concern. Less recognised though, are psychological layers of prejudice and discrimination, which play a significant role in cementing marginality. Against this backdrop, health practitioners can fill influential roles in shaping the self-identity and citizenship entitlement of people with disabilities. Yet, these profess…
Intersectionality and embodiment
While viewing an intersectional analysis of inequality as fundamental, we published an opinion in this journal (Watermeyer & Swartz, 2023) pointing to how, in practice, it can be (mis)applied in a manner which underestimates the complexity brought by disability's infinite diversity in forms of embodiment.This observation in no way implies that disability, or any other marker of identity for that matter, is somehow intrinsically more significant t…
Disability Rights and Representation (24 works) · Psychology (21 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Gender Studies (14 works) · Social Psychology (14 works) · Gender Studies (12 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Aesthetics (10 works) · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (10 works)