This month we are honored to be joined by Evan Sullivan who is an assistant professor at SUNY Adirondack in Upstate New York. Evan is a historian whose research interests examine the intersections of disability, war and gender in the modern era, especially in the World War One era. Evan’s interest in this era stems from his master’s studies and from some of the archival collections that he found researching his master’s thesis. Evan gives us insight into his research trajectory, including how he started investigating disability history. We discussed how perceptions of disability are formed and whose stories are being told. Historically, there have been many cases where disability has been used to tell a story that does not match with the lived experience of the disabled people themselves. In many cases these stories were used more to satisfy the emotional/inspiration needs of the reader rather than tell the story and/or serve the needs of the disabled veterans. 

Would you like to check out Evan’s new book? Constructing Disability after the Great War: Blind Veterans in the Progressive Era: https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p088247 

If you would like to check out more of Evan’s work, please visit his University profile: https://www.sunyacc.edu/staff-faculty/evan-sullivan

or personal website: https://evanpsullivan.wordpress.com/ 

You can also find Evan on various social media platforms:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561801370318 

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/evanpsullivan.bsky.social 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.evanpsullivan_historian