Daniella Santoro

This research examines the spaces of social and political erasure of those injured by gun violence in New Orleans. At the intersection of racist and ableist narratives that blame black men for their injuries and view disability only as suffering, gunshot survivors are underserved, their subjectivities and lifeworlds under-represented. ACLS funding supports research and writing about Black disability living history and gunshot survival in order to prepare a book manuscript centered around a social network of disabled survivors. “The Wheelchair Life” focuses on how gunshot survivors contest their social invisibility, build care networks and how disability identities are forged within the existing stakes of Black survival in New Orleans and the United States.