Christina Crosby, Ph.D.

Christina Crosby, PhD (September 2, 1953- January 5, 2021) was a Professor of English and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Wesleyan University and the author of A Body, Undone: Living on after Great Pain (NYU Press, March 2016), a memoir exploring what it took to create a truly livable life in the wake of a spinal cord injury that dispossessed her of her body. This article was originally published November 2016. The editorial staff at the Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation honors and celebrates the complex and powerful life of Dr. Crosby, professor, humanist, and thought leader in the fields of gender Disability Studies. Through the lens of her lived experience of traumatic injury and expertise in feminist and gender studies, she explored and expanded the realm of disability and embodiment, helping society appreciate the nuanced influences of culture and community on identity, suffering and what it means to be in relationship with the world, and with others. In her piece "We are Looking for Positives Here" she expounded upon this nuance, appreciating the "both/ and" nature of recovery and re- embodiment in a society that is both ameliorative and oppressive to those in Disabled bodies. Dr. Crosby wrote with honesty about the importance of honoring the pain (both physical and emotional) associated with the experience of injury and disability. This recognition of, and turning toward- the experience of suffering, is as valuable and central to lived experience as optimism and gratitude is along the winding path of recovery. Dr. Crosby reminds all of us what it means, not just to live in a body, but to _em_body and take up space in the world. The spaces she cultivated and inhabited through her works will be long remembered.