Michelle Botha
Biographic Data
| ID | 6567552 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michelle Botha |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michelle |
| FAMILY NAME | Botha |
| SIGNATURE | BOTHA M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stellenbosch University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8436-1230 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Disability inclusion and participation in Mount Frere, Eastern Cape
These findings contribute to the broader discourse on disability rights in rural South African contexts and call for targeted, context-specific policies to enhance inclusion and participation
The potential and challenges of an online Bible study group for persons with disabilities
This research contributes to the fields of disability studies, religious inclusion and digital engagement. Recommendations include the use of adaptable technologies, leadership training in disability inclusion within a religious space and developing more engaging platforms to foster inclusion within these religious spaces
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…
Seeing the human behind the research
African disability studies scholars are well-placed to disrupt ableism in academic, medical and social spheres, as well as hierarchies within academia, which limit development, mutual growth and respect
Hey, where’s my low-key sexist objectification?”
In this autoethnographic paper, I present some personal reflections on negotiating tricky identity-related terrain as sociocultural beliefs about disability, femininity, impairment, and sexuality interact with my embodiment as a blind woman. This has primarily to do with being in some ways liberated and in other ways banished from both normative femininity and the gaze. I describe the complicated double-binds in my own experience with seeking bel…
It is in the Nature of Men”
This study employed a cross-sectional, qualitative individual interview methodology to explore South African women with physical disabilities' experiences of intimate partner and sexual violence, inclusive of non-consensual and coerced sexual intercourse. For the participants, disability was a factor that intersected with gender norms to create vulnerability to abuse, and that patriarchal ideologies constructing how women should perform their gen…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Hey, where’s my low-key sexist objectification?”
In this autoethnographic paper, I present some personal reflections on negotiating tricky identity-related terrain as sociocultural beliefs about disability, femininity, impairment, and sexuality interact with my embodiment as a blind woman. This has primarily to do with being in some ways liberated and in other ways banished from both normative femininity and the gaze. I describe the complicated double-binds in my own experience with seeking bel…
It is in the Nature of Men”
This study employed a cross-sectional, qualitative individual interview methodology to explore South African women with physical disabilities' experiences of intimate partner and sexual violence, inclusive of non-consensual and coerced sexual intercourse. For the participants, disability was a factor that intersected with gender norms to create vulnerability to abuse, and that patriarchal ideologies constructing how women should perform their gen…
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…
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…
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…
It is in the Nature of Men”
This study employed a cross-sectional, qualitative individual interview methodology to explore South African women with physical disabilities' experiences of intimate partner and sexual violence, inclusive of non-consensual and coerced sexual intercourse. For the participants, disability was a factor that intersected with gender norms to create vulnerability to abuse, and that patriarchal ideologies constructing how women should perform their gen…
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…
Seeing the human behind the research
African disability studies scholars are well-placed to disrupt ableism in academic, medical and social spheres, as well as hierarchies within academia, which limit development, mutual growth and respect
Hey, where’s my low-key sexist objectification?”
In this autoethnographic paper, I present some personal reflections on negotiating tricky identity-related terrain as sociocultural beliefs about disability, femininity, impairment, and sexuality interact with my embodiment as a blind woman. This has primarily to do with being in some ways liberated and in other ways banished from both normative femininity and the gaze. I describe the complicated double-binds in my own experience with seeking bel…
Disability inclusion and participation in Mount Frere, Eastern Cape
These findings contribute to the broader discourse on disability rights in rural South African contexts and call for targeted, context-specific policies to enhance inclusion and participation
The potential and challenges of an online Bible study group for persons with disabilities
This research contributes to the fields of disability studies, religious inclusion and digital engagement. Recommendations include the use of adaptable technologies, leadership training in disability inclusion within a religious space and developing more engaging platforms to foster inclusion within these religious spaces
Every time I feel down, my family loves to see me do the right things
Disability Rights and Representation (9 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (3 works) · Identity (music (3 works) · Legal Issues in South Africa (3 works)