David Bolt (disability studies)


David Bolt is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies and the Director of the Centre for Culture & Disability Studies at Liverpool Hope University, where he is also Professor of Disability Studies and Interdisciplinarity.

Academic work

Bolt joined Liverpool Hope University in August 2009 as a lecturer in Disability Studies. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, founder of the International Network of Literary & Cultural Disability Scholars, and was the first Honorary Research Fellow in the Centre for Disability Research at Lancaster University.
His published works include:

Monographs

  • The Metanarrative of Blindness: A Re-reading of Twentieth-Century Anglophone Writing .
  • Cultural Disability Studies in Education: Interdisciplinary Navigations of the Normative Divide
  • Disability Duplicity and the Formative Cultural Politics of Generation X
  • ''The Playground Model of Disability: Dis/honestly Tropes in Contemporary British Sociocultural Representation''

Edited Collections

  • The Madwoman and the Blindman: Jane Eyre, Discourse, Disability Eds. David Bolt, Julia Miele Rodas, & Elizabeth J. Donaldson
  • Changing Social Attitudes Toward Disability: Perspectives from historical, cultural, and educational studies Ed. David Bolt
  • Disability, Avoidance and the Academy: Challenging Resistance Eds. David Bolt & Claire Penketh
  • Metanarratives of Disability: Culture, Assumed Authority, and the Normative Social Order Ed. David Bolt
  • Finding Blindness: International Constructions and Deconstructions Ed. David Bolt
  • ''Cultural Stations of Disability: A Moment in Discourse''

Book Series

  • Literary Disability Studies Book Series Eds. David Bolt, Elizabeth J. Donaldson, & Julia Miele Rodas
  1. Friedrich, Patricia. The Literary and Linguistic Construction of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: No Ordinary Doubt
  2. Disability in Comic Books and Graphic Narratives Eds. Chris Foss, Jonathan W. Gray, & Zach Whalen
  3. Disabling Romanticism: Body, Mind, and Text Ed. Michael Bradshaw
  4. Thompson, Hannah. Reviewing Blindness in French Fiction, 1789-2013
  5. Tankard, Alex. Tuberculosis and Disabled Identity in Nineteenth Century Literature: Invalid Lives
  6. Literatures of Madness: Disability Studies and Mental Health Ed. Elizabeth J. Donaldson
  7. Row-Heyveld, Lindsey. Dissembling Disability in Early Modern English Drama
  8. Performing Disability in Early Modern English Drama Ed. Leslie C. Dunn
  9. Grubgeld, Elizabeth. Disability and Life Writing in Post-Independence Ireland
  10. Amputation in Literature and Film: Artificial Limbs, Prosthetic Relations and the Semiotics of "Loss" Eds. Erik Grayson and Maren Scheurer
  11. Healey, Devon. Dramatizing Blindness: Disability Studies as Critical Creative Narrative
  12. Introna, Arianna. Autonomist Narratives of Disability in Modern Scottish Writing: Crip Enchantments
  13. Haukaas, Anelise. Disability Identity in Simulation Narratives
  14. Placing Disability: Personal Essays of Embodied Geography Eds. Susannah B. Mintz & Gregory Fraser
  15. Logan-Smith, Louise. Neo-Victorian Cultural Collections of Disability: Interdisciplinary Navigations
  16. Irish, Bradley J. Literary Neurodiversity Studies: Current and Future Directions A Cultural History of Disability General Eds. David Bolt, & Robert McRuer
  17. A Cultural History of Disability in Antiquity, Volume 1. Ed. Christian Laes
  18. A Cultural History of Disability in the Middle Ages, Volume 2. Eds. Jonathan Hsy, Tory V. Pearman & Joshua R. Eyler
  19. A Cultural History of Disability in the Renaissance, Volume 3. Eds. Susan Anderson & Liam Haydon
  20. A Cultural History of Disability in the Long Eighteenth Century, Volume 4. Eds. D. Christopher Gabbard & Susannah B. Mintz
  21. A Cultural History of Disability in the Long Nineteenth Century, Volume 5. Eds. Joyce L. Huff & Martha Stoddard Holmes
  22. A Cultural History of Disability in the Modern Age, Volume 6. Eds. David T. Mitchell & Sharon L. Snyder Autocritical Disability Studies Book Series Ed. David Bolt
  23. Metanarratives of Disability: Culture, Assumed Authority and the Normative Social Order. Ed. David Bolt
  24. Finding Blindness: International Constructions and Deconstructions. Ed. David Bolt
  25. Pritchard, Erin. Midgetism: The Exploitation and Discrimination of People with Dwarfism Ed. David Bolt
  26. Houston, Ella. Advertising Disability Ed. David Bolt
  27. Lee, Yoon Joo. Stories on Disability Through Our Voices: Born This Way Ed. David Bolt
  28. Barden, Owen. Learning with Learning Disability: What Learning Disability Can Teach Us About Being Human Ed. David Bolt

Centre for Culture & Disability Studies

Bolt is the director of the Centre for Culture & Disability Studies . The work of the CCDS is fundamentally concerned with social justice; with challenging and changing the inequalities and prejudices that disabled people face on a daily basis.
Key areas of interest include:
  • The analysis of representations of disability in all forms of cultural production, and how these shape wider public understandings of disability.
  • Curricular reform at all levels of education.
The CCDS events are internationally recognised for bringing together a mix of Early Career Researchers and some of the most eminent professors in the field. The seminars are often filmed. People can now subscribe to this channel to access various videos.

Creative writing

In the early 21st century, Bolt was involved in creative writing as a tutor at Newcastle Under Lyme College and as a writer of poetry and short stories. His short stories appeared in Breath & Shadow, the literary magazine of the organization Ability Maine. Short stories include, "Spangles", "The Currency of Beauty", and "The Silent Treatment". "The Silent Treatment" was anthologized in the book Dozen: The Best of Breath and Shadow.