Dear Friends, Judy Heumann - May her memory be a blessing. The Pac Rim conference kicked off yesterday with a discussion on disability studies. Later Judy Heumann was scheduled to speak. She died while we were talking about the future of disability studies. A future we might not have without Judy. Judy struggled with the vocabulary of disability studies. She wanted everyone to use plainer language, and of course, that is a subject for debate in disability studies. Disability studies, particularly "critical" disability studies, can intentionally underpin the nonacademic global disability rights and justice movements. Our day pondering the future of disability studies left me affirming that not everything about disability is disability studies, and that a disability studies perspective is creating new social theory, sharper problem definition, and better research methods that can contribute to the study of topics other than disability. I was looking forward to continuing my debate with Judy. I will have that debate about the utility and problems of academic language representing social movements with my students in Judy's honor and I hope I can do justice to her perspective. No disability studies scholar's death will be announced within moments on NPR. Now ask me how I feel about all these deaths-from Irv Zola, to Ed Roberts, to Linda Gonzalez, to Neil Marcus, to Hale Zukas, to Judy. I am mad and sad and determined to be more comfortable in study and advocacy and to blend them to create a diaspora of disability studies' best ideas. How do we honor Judy? We need to take both individual and collective steps to us all "Being Heumann." When we meet in twos and threes we need to develop three or four opinions, after all, Judy was proudly Jewish. We can also honor Judy by being more intentionally and more carefully international. Dial back to her role in the trio with Ed and Joan Leon founding WID. The "W" is "World." While the anthropologist in me looks to see what "disability" means as a concept in other cultures, I do have Judy's voice in the back of my head saying, "So what? What do we do?" I will treasure that not-so-small voice and remember watching her in corners and hallways having intense one on one conversations with power while the rest of us danced. Shalom, devva Devva Kasnitz, PhD Adj Professor, City University of New York-School of Professional Studies-Disability Studies Telecommunications Access for the Deaf and Disabled Administrative Committee, CA 1614 D Street Eureka, CA 95501-2345 Text and Voicemail: (510) 206-5767 Email: <mailto:devva@earthlink.net> devva@earthlink.net If you don't know me, I prefer email, Skype with IM, or text as I do have a significant speech impairment. NOW IN PAPERBACK! Occupying Disability: Critical Approaches to Community, Justice, and Decolonizing Disability Editors: Block, P., Kasnitz, D., Nishida, A., Pollard, N. <http://www.springer.com/us/book/9789401799836> http://www.springer.com/us/book/9789401799836