Emily S. Beitiks

Growing up with a disabled mother, Emily Smith Beitiks witnessed how our society treats people with disabilities. She believes that disability need not be seen as tragedy or pity, and feels that having a disabled mother transformed her for the better.

Beitiks received a Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Minnesota in April 2012. Emily's dissertation, "Building the Normal Body: Disability and the Techno-Makeover Industry," critiqued American cultural celebrations of the disabled body being "fixed" by technological interventions in science policy and popular culture. She has taught at University of Minnesota, UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, and in Ghana with course topics covering social justice, cultural understandings of "the body," and the role of technology in American culture. Beitiks is a former senior program associate for the Center for Genetics and Society. In her current position as Associate Director of the Paul Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University, she continues her work as a scholar and advocate of disability to showcase how disabled people bring unique value that can benefit us all.