Ruth Ann O'Brien is an American author and editor best known for her writing in the field of

disability studies Disability studies is an academic discipline that examines the meaning, nature, and consequences of disability. Initially, the field focused on the division between "impairment" and "disability," where impairment was an impairment of an individual ...

. She is a professor at the City University of New York.

Education and career

O'Brien was born in Spokane, Washington, and grew up in California. In 1977 she become a page in the U.S. House of Representatives after being nominated by Representative William M. Ketchum. She earned a B.A. from Claremont Men's College (now Claremont McKenna College) as part of the first group of women to enroll, and a Ph.D. in political science from

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

(1991). Following her Ph.D., O'Brien taught at the University of Denver before moving to the City University of New York in 1993. In 2003, she became the executive officer of the Ph.D./M.A. program in political science at the CUNY Graduate Center. As of 2022, O'Brien is a professor at the City University of New York. O'Brien is known for her writings and discussions on the

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA () is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ...

and the implications for the workplace. Her book ''Crippled Justice'' was the first written history of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and was reviewed by Leonard Kriegel and others. In ''Bodies in Revolt'' she examined disability in the workplace, and this book was reviewed in Law & Society Review in 2008. She has also published on

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

's presidency.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, Ruth Living people University of California, Los Angeles alumni Claremont McKenna College City University of New York faculty Disability studies American women writers Year of birth missing (living people)