Westminster College Speech Professor Presents Paper at Conference

James L. Cherney, instructor of speech at Westminster College, recently presented two papers at the National Communication Association Conference in Seattle, Wash.

"Cure Commodified: Ableism, Messianic Medicine, and Nuveen's Christopher Reeve Commercial" deals with the commercial that enhanced Christopher Reeve walking to present an award at a futuristic ceremony and became a center of a controversy after it aired during the 2000 Superbowl. Cherney's paper argues that the commercial's meaning and significance were necessarily shaped by the contemporary mythos of "miracle cures" and "Superman."

Cherney's paper, "Eroticizing Disability: The Collision of Sex and Cyborgs in Cronenberg's Crash," argues that our culture tends to restrict the sexuality of people with disabilities, but that the film Crash acts to correct this by crafting images of disability in erotic situations.

While at the conference, Cherney was elected vice chair elect of the Disability Caucus of the National Communication Association. This position is the first step of a three-year commitment, which culminates as the chair of the association in 2002.

Cherney, who joined the Westminster College faculty this year, earned his undergraduate degree from Butler University, and his master's from Indiana University.