WKU News

The Potter College of Arts & Letters (PCAL) at WKU will be welcoming disability advocate, educator, and best-selling author, Rebekah Taussig, to campus as a part of their Cultural Enhancement Series (CES) on Thursday, March 5^th, at 6:30 PM in the Houchen Industries Auditorium in Chandler Hall.

Paralyzed since the age of three, Taussig is a mom, wife, author, disability advocate, and educator with a Ph.D. in creative nonfiction and disability studies. A storyteller at heart with a great sense of humor, she invites us to think bigger and more critically about who has a seat at the table and the barriers that bar others from inclusion.

She authored the best-selling memoir, “Sitting Pretty: The View From My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body”, which won the Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Literary Nonfiction, and the children’s book, We Are the Scrappy Ones. Her writing has also appeared in publications from Time to Refinery29.

For Taussig, her main inspiration for writing is to understand, reclaim, and participate in the changing of cultural narratives the world has around disability, motherhood, and what it means to live in a human body. She also highlights these aspects through her successful Instagram account, @sitting_pretty, which has garnered over 65,000 followers.

Most recently, she joined the screenwriting team for the upcoming Apple Original film Being Heumann, based on the memoir by trailblazing activist Judith Heumann. Directed by Oscar-winner Siân Heder (CODA), the film stars Ruth Madeley as Judy Heumann, alongside Mark Ruffalo and Dylan O’Brien, and tells the story of the 504 sit-in and the birth of the modern disability rights movement.

Taussig will challenge everything you think you know about disability as she invites us into her experience of living in a body that looks and moves differently than most.

Admission is free, no tickets are necessary, and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Following her talk, a book signing will be offered. If you have questions about the event, please contact Jessica Luna at jessica.luna@wku.edu.

To learn more about the PCAL Cultural Enhancement Series, please visit https://www.wku.edu/culturalenhancement/.