Jaipreet Virdi

New update! I'm a #deaf historian of #histSTM and #DisabilityHistory at the University of Victoria. I think & write about disability technologies & medical/scientific authority. Latest book: Echoes of Care (‪@mcgillqueensup.bsky.social‬) www.mqup.ca/echoes-of-ca...

Or to put it in terms that the kids will understand... (Is this the first time this meme has been deployed in a history of biology context? Probably not, but it still made me chuckle!) #histbio #Photograph51 #Photograph49 🧬

Sure, Photograph 51 is cool, but if you really want to understand Rosalind Franklin's DNA research, you need to look at Photograph 49! Congrats to @alistairsponsel.bsky.social & Brian Sutton on the publication of their compelling new @jhistbiol.bsky.social article! #histSTM #histsci #biology 🗃️📜🧬

Exclusive: A new analysis refutes James Watson’s claim that he was the first to recognize the significance of the famed photograph 51. https://scim.ag/4rTKck8

Colleague let me know other day that they'd "enjoyed" their appraisal with me. They seemed surprised! Made my day, because no-one likes doing these things, but the fact that we both enjoyed it/ got something from it - makes it worthwhile.

Academic labour is ardouous: committees, grants, reviewer reports....its overwhelming. Then there's the small moments. After a meeting, a colleague sent a note thanking me for my contributions & appreciating my approach to EDI. I felt valued. We're all busy. Send the kind note of recognition.

Academic labour is ardouous: committees, grants, reviewer reports....its overwhelming. Then there's the small moments. After a meeting, a colleague sent a note thanking me for my contributions & appreciating my approach to EDI. I felt valued. We're all busy. Send the kind note of recognition.

Morning coffee scene: puppy cuddles achieved (can you spot Maya?) which makes it difficult to actually get up and start my workday.

Thanks to The Fiddlehead for including my book review of Jaipreet Virdi's book Echoes of Care: Deafness in Modern Britain in their disability issue. The print issue is delayed, but you can check out my review on their website now: thefiddlehead.ca/content/yola...

Science, language, what’s the difference?

Jaipreet Virdi points out that gene therapies risk reinforcing the idea that deafness is “a problem in need of eradication, and that the only solution for disabled people to fully assimilate into society is through a medical intervention.” www.npr.org/2026/04/23/n...

"Designed to provide access to public toilets for disabled people, the Radar Key reflects more than a material tool: it showcases wider debates around access, design, and spatial politics in modern Britain." Kirstie Stage on the radical nature of the Radar Key.

Dear World, May I introduce you to Maya, our 8 week old Labrador x Retriever mix? She's a survivor of BC wildfires, rescued by the humane society, and is now in her forever home, being spoiled by love.

Dear World, May I introduce you to Maya, our 8 week old Labrador x Retriever mix? She's a survivor of BC wildfires, rescued by the humane society, and is now in her forever home, being spoiled by love.

Anyone elsecome home from work and immediately take a nap?

Dr. Taussig lost her hearing around the time she graduated from med school. She used lip-reading and hearing aids with patients, and her fingers in place of a stethoscope. Colleagues said that her touch was sufficiently sensitive to detect some heart irregularities. Image: AMC Med. Archives / JHU

What if we just let Canvas die?

It is surprising how so few of the many histories of eugenics centre the voices of disabled people. Uncovering these perspectives contradicts all previous narratives of eugenics in interwar Britain

"We think of the eugenicist and the disabled person antagonistically, as perpetrator and victim. But it turns out their aims and interactions have long been entangled." Today's #histSTM lunch read: @coreenanne.bsky.social & Alex Aylward's @aeon.co essay on disabled views of #eugenics in the UK 🗃️📜

In the story of eugenics, disabled people are often depicted as passive victims. But for some it seemed an opportunity. An Essay by @coreenanne.bsky.social & Alex Aylward

I think it sucks this nearly 1,000 word article includes only one critical viewpoint. 85 words, one paragraph, at the end. I'm glad it's @jaivirdi.com's viewpoint. And there should be so many more too! There is NO shortage of similar viewpoints from DHH people. They should be amplified!

Proud to announce Spring 2026’s What Is Research Now? from Paul Mellon Ctr, co-convened by Sria Chatterjee, Kenny Fries, & myself. DISABLED LEGACIES: BEYOND ACCESS AND INCLUSION www.britishart.ac.uk/about/news/w... 26-28 Feb & 26-28 Mar 2026 @jaivirdi.com @syrusmarcusware.bsky.social many more ✨

Last was "Hearing Happiness" by @jaivirdi.com, who brilliantly illustrates the history of deafness "cures", showing how quack cures seamlessly blended with science and the ableism/techno-solutionism underlying them Highly recommend Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (6/6)

Eight hours work, eight hours rest, eight hours for what you will. Happy May Day.

I would add that they don't actually understand that HE is an industry, that it can actually collapse, that academic jobs are real jobs, that actual people will be unemployed, and will struggle to find alternative employment. That a shuttered uni takes down a city the same as a shuttered factory

Dear scholars, scientists, doctors and advocates - we need your voices and expertise more than ever. If there was ever a time to bring the Ivory Tower right into the middle of the Public Square, it's now.

I wrote about this a bit in my last book but it really shakes me that a defining feature of this catastrophic era is that we just keep going to work. We work through pandemics, we work through natural disasters, we work through economic calamity, we work through coups, we work, we work, we work.

I don’t understand how we so quickly forgot the supply shock lessons of Covid. Do people not remember what it was like to just not be able to get ahold of stuff required for daily existence? I am telling you, manufacturers that can’t absorb these tariffs are going to simply stop assembly lines.

Can we get more of this? “The Japanese American National Museum will ‘scrub nothing,’ Fujioka said, and instead will highlight the importance of DEI. “Our community is based on diversity, equity is guaranteed to us in the Constitution, and inclusion is what we believe in,” Fujioka said.

Absolutely tired of the psychodrama of one country being the problem of the entire planet.

My sweet, precious Bennie boy, my little deafie shadow...always in my arms. I miss you.

We lost our sweet Ben. There are no words to express our heartbreak.

any author who gets on the side of “libgen is bad” goes on my “i will pirate you even when i have a job” list

Welcome, sharktopus overlords!

"Americans are often very well aware of activists such as Fredrick Douglas, Martin Luther King Jr., and Susan B. Anthony, yet one of the most influential and outspoken activists in the last 150 years is largely relegated to being remembered as a ‘miracle’, and recently even as a hoax."

Nice to meet you. I write about the Deaf Church in Norway during WWII. The minister for the deaf was high up in the resistance and some teachers were in the resistance.