MARTA RUSSELL

MARTA RUSSELL writes on the political, social and economic aspects of disablement. Born with an impairment, Russell began writing when her impairment progressed and she no longer worked in the film industry. Her socio-economic analysis has been published in the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, the Review of Radical Political Economy, the Journal of Disability Policy Studies, Disability & Society, Monthly Review, Disability Studies Quarterly, Left Business Observer, Real World Micro, 9th edition, Socialist Register 2002, and the Backlash Against the Americans with Disabilities Act: Reinterpreting Disability Rights (Corporealities, Discourses of Disability) University of Michigan Press, 2003.

Russell's articles have been published in Counterpunch, The Ragged Edge, New Mobility Magazine, and Mouth, the voice of disability rights. Commentaries have appeared in The San Jose Mercury News, The Los Angeles Times, The Austin American-Statesman and other newspapers across the nation. She writes a monthly commentary for Znet. Russell was nominated for a MAGGIE award in 1995.

Her investigative reporting earned her a Golden Mike Award for Best Documentary from the Southern California Radio and Television News Association in 1994. She was honored as co-producer/correspondent for the KCET Life & Times documentary entitled, "Disabled & the Cost of Saying 'I Do" on marriage disincentives in Social Security policy.

Russell's first book, BEYOND RAMPS, DISABILITY AT THE END OF THE SOCIAL CONTRACT (Common Courage Press, 1998) is what USC professor Harlan Hahn describes as "a stinging critique" of disablement under American capitalism.

Marta Russell is the author of Beyond Ramps: Disability a the End of the Social Contract (Common Courage Press 1998). Her main focus is on the political economy and disablement. Russell's commentaries have appeared in a range of publications: from Z Magazine to the Los Angeles Times, from Green Left Weekly to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Forthcoming is an analysis of civil rights, disablement, and the political economy in the University of California Berkeley Employment and Labor Law Journal (BJELL Fall 1999). She has been active in both the African American and disability civil rights struggles and the anti-Vietnam war movement. She moved from Mississippi to Los Angeles where she worked in the film industry for many years culminating her film work with the documentary "Disabled and the Cost of Saying 'I Do' which earned her a Golden Mike Award from the Southern California Radio and Television News Association.