Draft:Devva Kasnitz

Deborah Jean Kasnitz (d.2025) known as Devva Kasnitz, was an American anthropologist, disability scholar, and activist known as a founder of and legendary figure in disability studies.[1] Kasnitz was on the founding boards of the Society for Disability Studies, the Anthropology and Disability Research Interest Group of the Society for Medical Anthropology, and the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL). Additionally, Kasnitz served as the Executive Director of the Society for Disability Studies and as an adjunct professor at the CUNY SPS MA in Disability Studies and MS in Disability Services in Higher Education programs where she was a two-time Kate Welling Distinguished Scholar in Disability Studies.[2]

Early Life and Education

Kasnitz was trained in cultural geography at Clark University[2] during a period of significant cultural and institutional change in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As an undergraduate, she arranged accommodations such as recorded lectures and dictated exam answers, creating pathways for accessible learning which helped her build strong relationships with faculty members.[3]

She later pursued her PhD in anthropology at the University of Michigan, where she helped establish medical anthropology as a legitimate subfield in ethnology at the institution. For her dissertation, Kasnitz lived in Australia for three years, exploring the political economy of health care for circum-Mediterranean immigrants in Australia.[3] Kasnitz began working in disability studies in 1979.[1] She completed her dissertation titled, Work, Gender, and Health Among Southern Italian Immigrants in Melburne, Australia in 1981.[4]

Career

Following graduate school, Kasnitz held postdoctoral appointments in ethnography and public policy, and medical anthropology at Northwestern University and the University of California, San Francisco, respectively.[3]

In 1983, Kasnitz published her article on the effects of early versus late onset of disability in elderly populations. This publication led to her to the position of Executive Director at the Independent Living Center in Eureka, CA.[3] More recently, Kasnitz represented disabled citizens on the California State Telecommunications Access for the Deaf and Disabled Administrative Committee.[2]

Throughout her career, Kasnitz received research funding from the NIH, NIMH, NIDRR, the American Anthropological Association, The Felton Bequest, and the Sprint Foundation.[2]

Honors and Awards

Kasnitz was twice-named a Kate Wellington Distinguished Scholar in Disability Studies, was a 2000 NIDRR Switzer Fellow, and the 2014 recipient of the Society for Disability Studies Senior Scholar Award.[2]

Selected Publications

  • Kasnitz, Devva, and Russell Shuttleworth. “Introduction: Anthropology in Disability Studies.” Disability Studies Quarterly 21, no. 3 (2001). https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v21i3.289.
  • Kasnitz, Devva. “Life Event Histories and the US Independent Living Movement.” In Disability and the Life Course, 1st ed., edited by Mark Priestley. Cambridge University Press, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511520914.008.
  • Kasnitz, Devva. “Commentary: Collaborations from Anthropology, Occupational Therapy and Disability Studies.” Practicing Anthropology 30, no. 3 (2008): 28–31. https://doi.org/10.17730/praa.30.3.7365n24r423l8p43.
  • Kasnitz, Devva. “The Politics of Disability Performativity: An Autoethnography.” Current Anthropology 61, no. S21 (2020): S16–25. https://doi.org/10.1086/705782.
  • Kasnitz, Devva, and Pamela Block. “Participation, Time, Effort and Speech Disability Justice.” In Politics of Occupation‐Centred Practice, 1st ed., edited by Nick Pollard and Dikaios Sakellariou. Wiley, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118702819.ch14.
  • Kasnitz, Devva, and Russell Shuttleworth. Engaging Anthropology in Disability Studies. Position Paper in Disability Studies. (World Institute on Disability) 1, no. 1 (1999).
  • Mankoff, Jennifer, Devva Kasnitz, L. Jean Camp, Jonathan Lazar, and Harry Hochheiser. “AI Must Be Anti-Ableist and Accessible.” Communications of the ACM 67, no. 12 (2024): 40–42. https://doi.org/10.1145/3662731.
  • Marcus, Neil, Devva Kasnitz, and Pamela Block. “If Disability Is a Dance, Who Is the Choreographer? A Conversation About Life Occupations, Art, Movement.” In Occupying Disability: Critical Approaches to Community, Justice, and Decolonizing Disability, edited by Pamela Block, Devva Kasnitz, Akemi Nishida, and Nick Pollard. Springer Netherlands, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9984-3_24.
  • Pollard, Nick, Devva Kasnitz, and Akemi Nishida, eds. Occupying Disability: Critical Approaches to Community, Justice, and Decolonizing Disability. 1st ed. 2016. SpringerLink Bücher. Springer, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9984-3.

Personal Life

A lifelong dancer trained in ballet and modern dance since three, as well as jazz, Kasnitz viewed dance as central to both her identity and health. She used structured movement as a daily therapeutic practice to manage her Torsion Dystonia, a rare Jewish genetic neuromuscular disorder.[3]

Kasnitz lived in Northern California, surrounded by her family. She also enjoyed spinning fleece, yarn, and fiber into cloth.[2]

Kasnitz passed away in 2025.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Beloved Disability Studies Faculty Member Mourned". City University of New York School of Professional Studies. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Devva Kasnitz". City University of New York School of Professional Studies. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  3. ^ a b c d e "A Dance in Three Acts: Devva Kasnitz" by Carolyn Epple
  4. ^ Work, Gender, and Health Among Southern Italian Immigrants in Melbourne, Australia by Deboard Jean Kasnitz


Category:CUNY Faculty Category:21st-century American anthropologists Category:Disability studies academics

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