Amanda K. Booher | The University of Akron (original) (raw)

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Papers by Amanda K. Booher

This work rethinks configurations of and relationships between bodies and prosthetics, emerging f... more This work rethinks configurations of and relationships between bodies and prosthetics, emerging from a gap between three particular theoretical perspectives. The first perspective builds from Gender and Disability Studies theories; the second operates within the frame of post-humanity and cyborgean theories, specifically though Bernard Stiegler, Katherine Hayles, and Donna Haraway; the third is a practical/medical perspective, demonstrated through the experiences of people with amputations and medical prosthetics, as well as through the influence of medical visualization technologies. While offering productive and compelling means of complicating and deconstructing boundaries of bodies and prosthetics, these perspectives often operate independently; an integrative perspective provides new grounds from which to reconfigure prosthetized bodies. From these grounds, this work examines social and historical anxieties about body/technology relationships, considering how binary oppositions of "natural" versus "technological" are constructed and discriminatorily employed against people with prosthetics. Through the story of Oscar Pistorius' 2008 Olympic attempt, ideas of norms and norming are contextualized, historicized, and deconstructed. Metaphors of bodies as docile machines are problematized through examination of public representations of women with prosthetics. This work situates bodies and prosthetics within historical perspectives created through the technological gaze of medical visualization technologies and nuclear medicine; the effects of ubiquitous and participatory communication technologies; the iii perception of the body as a malleable technology; and the effects of technologicallyadvanced prosthetics. Working particularly from the theories of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel Foucault, and Georges Canguilhem, this work posits a new epistemology of the prosthetized body as a historically-situated phenomenological somatechnic. iv DEDICATION To my father, who surrounded me with the wonders of medicine and bodies, encouraged me to always seek knowledge and understanding, and taught me to trust myself. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many deserve appreciation and recognition for their contributions to and support of this project. First and foremost are my committee members, Steve Katz, Barbara Heifferon, and Christina Nguyen Hung. I am deeply grateful for their expertise, insights, efforts, patience, and flexibility, without which this project would not have been possible.

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International Journal of Feminist Approaches to …, Jan 1, 2010

In this paper, I consider the implications of representations of women with prosthetics in popula... more In this paper, I consider the implications of representations of women with prosthetics in popular culture, specifically Heather Mills and Sarah Reinertsen. Using analyses from feminist and disability studies, I explore prosthetized bodies as docile bodies "fixed" to aesthetic and functional near-perfection. I then employ narratives emphasizing the complex corporeal experience of prosthetics to destabilize this seeming docility. I argue that "docile" readings are problematic and insufficient, building from faulty grounds of distinctions between "natural" and "technological," and "therapy" and "enhancement." Finally, I posit a more complex, phenomenological epistemology from which to consider prosthetized bodies and to reground prosthetic interpretations.

This article is available online if you follow the attached link. In 2008, the International Ass... more This article is available online if you follow the attached link.

In 2008, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) defined Oscar Pistorius, a South African sprinter with double transtibial amputations, as both disabled and superabled in the course of his attempt to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. This paper examines the grounds for and effects of the constructed definitions of "disabled," "abled," "superabled," and "normal" through explication of the documents and pronouncements of the IAAF, as well as those in Pistorius' appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. While the explication demonstrates the power of definition in Pistorius' case, this paper argues for greater specificity and malleability in definition construction in relation to bodies and technologies/prosthetics.

This work rethinks configurations of and relationships between bodies and prosthetics, emerging f... more This work rethinks configurations of and relationships between bodies and prosthetics, emerging from a gap between three particular theoretical perspectives. The first perspective builds from Gender and Disability Studies theories; the second operates within the frame of post-humanity and cyborgean theories, specifically though Bernard Stiegler, Katherine Hayles, and Donna Haraway; the third is a practical/medical perspective, demonstrated through the experiences of people with amputations and medical prosthetics, as well as through the influence of medical visualization technologies. While offering productive and compelling means of complicating and deconstructing boundaries of bodies and prosthetics, these perspectives often operate independently; an integrative perspective provides new grounds from which to reconfigure prosthetized bodies. From these grounds, this work examines social and historical anxieties about body/technology relationships, considering how binary oppositions of "natural" versus "technological" are constructed and discriminatorily employed against people with prosthetics. Through the story of Oscar Pistorius' 2008 Olympic attempt, ideas of norms and norming are contextualized, historicized, and deconstructed. Metaphors of bodies as docile machines are problematized through examination of public representations of women with prosthetics. This work situates bodies and prosthetics within historical perspectives created through the technological gaze of medical visualization technologies and nuclear medicine; the effects of ubiquitous and participatory communication technologies; the iii perception of the body as a malleable technology; and the effects of technologicallyadvanced prosthetics. Working particularly from the theories of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel Foucault, and Georges Canguilhem, this work posits a new epistemology of the prosthetized body as a historically-situated phenomenological somatechnic. iv DEDICATION To my father, who surrounded me with the wonders of medicine and bodies, encouraged me to always seek knowledge and understanding, and taught me to trust myself. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many deserve appreciation and recognition for their contributions to and support of this project. First and foremost are my committee members, Steve Katz, Barbara Heifferon, and Christina Nguyen Hung. I am deeply grateful for their expertise, insights, efforts, patience, and flexibility, without which this project would not have been possible.

Academia.edu helps academics follow the latest research.

International Journal of Feminist Approaches to …, Jan 1, 2010

In this paper, I consider the implications of representations of women with prosthetics in popula... more In this paper, I consider the implications of representations of women with prosthetics in popular culture, specifically Heather Mills and Sarah Reinertsen. Using analyses from feminist and disability studies, I explore prosthetized bodies as docile bodies "fixed" to aesthetic and functional near-perfection. I then employ narratives emphasizing the complex corporeal experience of prosthetics to destabilize this seeming docility. I argue that "docile" readings are problematic and insufficient, building from faulty grounds of distinctions between "natural" and "technological," and "therapy" and "enhancement." Finally, I posit a more complex, phenomenological epistemology from which to consider prosthetized bodies and to reground prosthetic interpretations.

This article is available online if you follow the attached link. In 2008, the International Ass... more This article is available online if you follow the attached link.

In 2008, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) defined Oscar Pistorius, a South African sprinter with double transtibial amputations, as both disabled and superabled in the course of his attempt to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. This paper examines the grounds for and effects of the constructed definitions of "disabled," "abled," "superabled," and "normal" through explication of the documents and pronouncements of the IAAF, as well as those in Pistorius' appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. While the explication demonstrates the power of definition in Pistorius' case, this paper argues for greater specificity and malleability in definition construction in relation to bodies and technologies/prosthetics.