Papers by Chiara Montalti
HUMANA.MENTE Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2025
![Research paper thumbnail of The Body, the Earth. The Participation of Disabled People in the Environmental Discourse [Open Access]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/110066666/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Journal of Ecohumanism, 2024
The essay aims to challenge the position of disability within environmental analyses and activism... more The essay aims to challenge the position of disability within environmental analyses and activism. I explore the broad environmentally focused discourse: namely, I will refer to the sociocultural texts, ideologies and worldviews that are implicated in the accounts of the environmental crises provoked by climate change. Which subjects have a voice, and which tend to remain in the background? Should the environmental discourse be understood as "neutral", because of what is at stake on a global level? I will consider these concerns through the lens of disability. Firstly, I will explore how disability usually functions as a signpost for two issues: (I) disabled people are represented as victims of the precarious living conditions exacerbated by climate change and environmental devastation and, (II) disability is employed as a cautionary tale regarding the outcomes of environmental devastation. Secondly, I will examine a performance called "The Mermaid", by Australian artist Hanna Cormick, which addresses the intersection of disability and environmental damage. I will read Cormick's work through Donna Haraway's concept of witness, proposing an update of environmental discourses. The aim behind this new framework is to positively situate disabled people: they should play an active role in addressing toxicity, capitalist extractivism and the entangled nature between the human subject and the environment.
Shift. International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2021
In this essay, I address the vulnerable positionings that can be experienced by disabled people i... more In this essay, I address the vulnerable positionings that can be experienced by disabled people in the employment of assistive technologies. In particular, I take into account two examples: (I) the vulnerability that can emerge from the dependence on other subjects in the management of technologies, and (II) how they can directly impact bodily matter. The topic is introduced by the analyses of Disability Studies regarding the nature of vulnerability and technological encounters, whereas referred to disabled people. They are juxtaposed with posthumanism and technofeminism, while transhumanism is instead framed as less productive in the matter. Lastly, I highlight how these contextual forms of vulnerability can be actively inhabited by disabled people, producing a collaborative effort that weaves them together with affective relationships or wider networks, and that minimises risks and harms.
![Research paper thumbnail of Lisa Bufano and Aimee Mullins: Disability and the aesthetic of non-human-like prostheses [Open Access]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/82558457/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Debates in Aesthetics, 2021
The essay aims to examine possible readings of disability in the context of visual art, especiall... more The essay aims to examine possible readings of disability in the context of visual art, especially regarding bodies prosthetised in unexpected ways. To do that, I will analyse two performances, participated/created by Lisa Bufano and Aimee Mullins, which employ prosthetics that distance them from the mimicry of human limbs. I will briefly contextualize them in the history of prosthetics. I will observe how their peculiarity and non-human forms can serve aesthetic and destabilizing purposes regarding the contours of disability. I will especially mention their potentiality regarding disabled bodies’ mobility in space and their relationship with tools. The association between a disabled body and non-human traits carries several symbolic meanings and might also produce risks. Generally, they can update the perspectives on the crafting of creative assemblages that start from impaired bodies. In conclusion, I will observe how Bufano’s art entails more promises on an ethico-political level.
MOSF-Journal of Science Fiction, 2019
This essay is focused on discourses surrounding disability within an Italian science fiction novel... more This essay is focused on discourses surrounding disability within an Italian science fiction novel entitled BeBlade, a unique publishing initiative written by Pierdomenico Baccalario (2018). The co-protagonist, in fact, is based on a young, wheelchair-using fencer and Paralympic athlete named Bebe Vio. After introducing the novel with respect to the science fiction genre, I will briefly illustrate the plot, and review how our character of interest is depicted. This article will examine some possible stereotypical representations of disability, employing the works of several disability scholars who deal in SF, such as Michael Bérubé and Kathryn Allan, to assess the novel’s success as a work of disability literature and as a work of young adult science fiction. While stereotypical and problematic representations threaten to emerge through the figure of the “supercrip,” as well as through the broader connotations of gendered representation throughout the text, this analysis aims to make manifest BeBlade’s radical potentiality as a disability narrative, particularly for science fiction writers and consumers engaged with disabled identities. The book examines various forms of disability, some typical and some unique to the story in question, with respect to “curing narratives” and to the oftentimes problematic intersections of futurity and disability – as outlined, for example, by Alison Kafer.
![Research paper thumbnail of Mapping disability politics through cyborg coalitions [Open Access]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/82573474/thumbnails/1.jpg)
AG-About Gender, 2020
This essay aims to craft intersections between the figure of the cyborg and disability that part ... more This essay aims to craft intersections between the figure of the cyborg and disability that part from the usual ones. I will frame disability advocacy through the concept of "cyborg politics", as proposed by Donna J. Haraway in her famous Cyborg Manifesto. I will discern two possible meanings of it, affinity and avidity. I will examine how affinity is performed within disability identity and politics, mentioning the positioning of Deaf advocacy too. Afterwards, I will most extensively frame the concept of avidity, presenting an example of restrooms politics (PISSAR) in which disabled and trans/genderqueer people collaborated. I will also examine how this last intersection let emerge additional concerns, especially rooted in gender normativity. In conclusion, I will underline the positive impacts that a mobile politics, based on affinity and avidity, had (and can still have) for disability advocacy.
Tròpos. Rivista di ermeneutica e critica filosofica, 2020
In many cultural texts, disability and futurity take different paths. We will analyse several nar... more In many cultural texts, disability and futurity take different paths. We will analyse several narratives which work as a background for this assumption, proposing in every section some counter–narrations. Firstly, disability is often understood as a tragedy. Secondly, it is often presumed that disabled people are nostalgic of their ‘former’ selves, which freeze them in a suspended time. Then, we will examine how our incapacity to imagine a flourishing future with disability affects our removal of disabled people from our collective future. Lastly, we will propose an imagined world which already, sometimes, presents this erasure: science fiction — and especially some utopian and feminist texts.
Collaborazione all'organizzazione di eventi by Chiara Montalti
Conoscenza e Educazione per il contrasto al Linguaggio dell'Odio "Come gli è facile avventarsi…" ... more Conoscenza e Educazione per il contrasto al Linguaggio dell'Odio "Come gli è facile avventarsi…" Organizzazione: Francesca Alesse (ILIESI-CNR), Lorenzo Giovannetti (Univ. degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata"/ILIESI-CNR) Per ricevere il link o informazioni contattare il seguente indirizzo:
Drafts by Chiara Montalti
Books by Chiara Montalti
Vulnerabilities. Rethinking Medicine Rights and Humanities in Post-pandemic, 2023
The aim of this essay is to mobilize the concept of disability and vulnerability, especially when... more The aim of this essay is to mobilize the concept of disability and vulnerability, especially when they intertwine. For so doing, I will refer to experiments of care collectives as a fertile case study. The concept of interdependence will accompany the analyses of the essay—and I will account both for the richness and for the limitations it entails. First, I will address the debate on vulnerability, mainly within Feminist Theory and Disability Studies. I will take into account the risks of imposing vulnerability upon specific social groups—for example, disabled people—as it can reinforce their disempowerment and minority position. I will then examine vulnerability as an ontological and contextual phenomenon, highlighting how both are especially productive in critically addressing disability. I will also take into account how disability and vulnerability are frequently entrenched in dependence: in this regard, I will underline how care relationships, which are often considered maximum examples of dependency, can both enhance and reduce the vulnerability that can be experienced by disabled people. I will pinpoint how the narrative of vulnerability can produce neglect of disabled people’s knowledge and skills, also in the context of care. Therefore, I will focus on the value of their expertise in this field, examining examples of collective care crafted in recent years and—despite the disabling and threatening nature of the event—even implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ETS, 2023
La pillola anticoncezionale è un corpo estraneo, che trasforma le donne a loro insaputa, o può in... more La pillola anticoncezionale è un corpo estraneo, che trasforma le donne a loro insaputa, o può invece rivelarsi anche uno strumento? Essa appare il crocevia di istanze opposte, e luogo della loro possibile ricombinazione: destruttura, ad esempio, i concetti di naturale e artificiale. I suoi effetti sono allo stesso tempo inattesi e attivamente ricercati, e l’esperienza corporea di chi la assume riflette questa profonda ambivalenza. La pillola anticoncezionale ha infatti una natura bifronte: da un lato produce un aumento del controllo, uno spazio fertile per una maggior autonomia, rappresentando inoltre un modo per modellare se stesse ed ingaggiare un confronto creativo con la propria femminilità. D’altro canto, gli effetti collaterali, spesso imprevedibili, possono ingenerare alienazione: può essere percepita la sensazione straniante di non essere autentiche, ma – almeno in parte – fabbricate. Ogni donna, pertanto, negozia di volta in volta la propria relazione con questo contraccettivo.
Conference Presentations by Chiara Montalti
"Etiche applicate e nuovi soggetti morali", Collana: Società Italiana di Filosofia Morale, Orthotes, 2024
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Papers by Chiara Montalti
Collaborazione all'organizzazione di eventi by Chiara Montalti
Drafts by Chiara Montalti
Books by Chiara Montalti
Conference Presentations by Chiara Montalti