2011

LSU Shreveport Instructor Published in Magazine

July 15, 2011

LSU Shreveport English Instructor Deshae Lott has been published in the current issue of Kaleidoscope: Exploring the Experience of Disability through Literature and the Fine Arts. Her featured essay "It's Not About the Dog" appears in issue number 63 of the magazine. Her work was selected from more than 350 submissions.

Lott is the founder and president of the nonprofit organization CMS Deshae Lott Ministries Inc. Through this organization, Lott leads a spiritual study group and offers persons with severe physical disabilities quality-of-life grants and post-bachelor degree scholarships. Her own disability is limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, and she is ventilator dependent.

"Living with a disability infuses each of my days with challenges, awareness, and opportunities I would otherwise lack. This experience does not define me, but it informs me and thus, what I write about disability-related issues," Lott said. She recently won a Gold Excel Award from the Association of Media and Publishing for her magazine column "Call Me a Good Cripple if You Must."

The award-winning Kaleidoscope Magazine is published by United Disability Services in Akron, Ohio. Unique to the field of disability studies, the publication expresses the experiences of disability from the perspective of individuals, families, friends, caregivers, and healthcare professional, among others. The material chosen for Kaleidoscope challenges and overcomes stereotypical, patronizing, and sentimental attitudes about disability.

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Media Contact: Deshae E. Lott, (deshae.lott@lsus.edu)