To Risk and To Represent: Local and Global Disability in Context

I am excited to be the International Editor for the new journal ‘Considering Disability: the Contemporary Studies Journal.’ For me personally, it is a daunting new project and I am very aware of what is at stake in claiming to be an ‘International Editor’ of a journal that is interested and invested in Disability Studies. I come from a Middle Eastern Bedouin background, and I have Multiple Sclerosis. But I am not sure whether my identity as a woman comes first, or as a ‘disabled’ woman, or whether my racial background is the first determining factor in these so-called identity politics. How do I wish to be perceived? And, what is my personal responsibility towards myself and the community? How do I make sure that my identity (and that of other disabled individuals) is not reduced and even worse, obliterated? I am an academic scholar who is also struggling with a disability, yet my identity should not simply be a Disabled Scholar. I am also a woman, one who is also a hybrid, and is considered queer in every sense of the word. My identity is simply one that does not fall under the safe zone of normalcy. I am not a normate, yet I am still asking: how would I consciously choose to be perceived? What part of my identity should come first?