Disability advocate and educator Rebekah Taussig to visit NSU on Oct. 4

TAHLEQUAH — Disability advocate and educator Rebekah Taussig will be at Northeastern State University to discuss her book “Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body” on Oct. 4.

Taussig will present from 6 to 6:45 p.m. in the Center for Performing Arts on the NSU Tahlequah campus. Following her presentation will be a book signing. Taussig is the recipient of the Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Literary Nonfiction for “Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body,” which is the Common Read book for 2022 at NSU.

Started in 2016, Common Read was created to promote a shared experience in learning and literacy for the NSU community and its stakeholders. All first-year freshmen participate in Common Read activities and assignments during UNIV 1003 University Strategies, and all interested faculty are encouraged to incorporate the text into their curriculum as appropriate.

“We are excited to bring the Common Read Author to campus and hope that students, staff, faculty and the community will come join us in welcoming Rebekah Taussig,” Dr. Kendra Haggard, director of student engagement and transitions, said.

Paralyzed since the age of three, Taussig is a mom, wife, author, disability advocate and educator. She has a doctorate in creative nonfiction and disability studies. She teaches students from freshmen in high school to upper-level college classes covering subjects such as English literature, composition and creative writing and disability studies.

She also advocates for disabled people and it is her mission to show they have incredible value and argues that a more inclusive world is sturdier, kinder and more imaginative for everyone. Taussig has led workshops at the University of Michigan, Davidson College and Yale University on disability representation, identity and community, and her writing appears in publications from TIME to Design*Sponge.

Taussig has also been a guest on a myriad of podcasts and runs the Instagram platform @sitting pretty, where she crafts “mini-memoirs” for her more than 50,000 followers to contribute nuance to the collective narratives being told about disability in our culture.

To learn more about Taussig’s visit and Common Read at NSU visit https://academicaffairs.nsuok.edu/CommonRead.aspx.