For the past five years my research interest has been focused on a macro approach to the study of rehabilitation practices. I am particularly interested in the political and economic interests of institutions, agencies and professionals who work with people with disabilities. I argue that needless dependency, contrary to the stated goals of rehabilitation policies, develops several contexts (the elderly, the mobility handicapped, the developmentally disabled, the hearing disabled, etc.); I have particularly focused my research on the social creation of blindness.

As my resume indicates, l have published two monographs and more than fifteen articles on this subject in the past five years. My work has included a comparative perspective, another neglected research approach to this subject.

I plan to continue to develop my present theoretical, comparative and historical perspectives on this topic. My next paper will analyze the disability rights movement, not as a health or welfare issue, but as one of human rights. I will focus on the social arrangements that either promote or diminish the human rights of disabled people. A dimension of this task is to further clarify the concept of human rights and to locate this concept in a sociological context.

As a secondary but somewhat related research interest, l plan to continue my research collaboration with several colleagues with whom I developed relationships while in China in 1991, 1992 and 1994. Other than articles mentioned in my resume, one result is a monograph, Mao as Poet and Revolutionary Leader that will be published late in 1999. A colleague in China translated the poetry into English. I organized it into various periods of Mao's life and included what I think to be a more balanced perspective on Mao's contribution to modern China than is evidenced in some recently published monographs.

Teaching

• Introduction to Sociology
• Professional Problems
• Seminar in Social Control
• Social Perspectives on Aging