On Sunday, October 30, 2016, Humanities Connection, a radio program sponsored by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities (NJCH), focused on the topic of disability history and disability rights and on the upcoming public program and workshops on those topics hosted by MARCH and co-sponsored by NJCH, “History, Memory, and Disability Rights: Creating Inclusive Public Humanities Programs.” Humanities Connection, broadcast on WFDU (89.1 FM), Fairleigh Dickinson University’s public radio station, is hosted by Bob Mann and airs the last Sunday of each month at 8 a.m.
On October 30, Mann interviewed Deborah Spitalnik, professor of pediatrics at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and executive director of the Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities at Rutgers University, and James Conroy, CEO of the Center for Outcomes Analysis and an international consultant on deinstitutionalization and disability rights. Spitalnik is an advocate, author, and program officer in the field of medicine and developmental disabilities. She has been instrumental in defining state and federal approaches to serving citizens with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Conroy is an author and activist who serves as co-president of the Pennhurst Memorial and Preservation Alliance. He is also co-editor of the forthcoming history, Between History and Hope: Pennhurst and the Struggle for Disability Rights. Both Spitalnik and Conroy will be participating in the November 19 MARCH program.
For those who did not catch the program when it aired, it is now available online. Conference registration is open until November 11.