G. Jasper Conner

Bio

Jasper works on the history of disabled African Americans in the modern U.S. South. Combining archival research with oral history, his work explores the lived experiences of Black disabled people at residential schools, at work, and in the community. His work is informed by the birth of his second child, who is Deaf.

Jasper is currently a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia.  

Disability Studies Quarterly is publishing his article “Blind and Deaf Together: Cross-Disability Community at Virginia’s Residential School for Black Disabled Youth” in an upcoming issue of the peer-reviewed journal. Jasper published “Education of Deaf and Blind African Americans in Virginia, 1909-2008” as a part of the Social Welfare History Project with Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries in 2022.  

He is on the Board of Directors of the Disability History Association. Jasper has presented research at the annual conferences for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the Labor and Working-Class History Association, the Southern Labor Studies Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the American Association for the History of Medicine. His research has been supported by the Archie K. Davis Fellowship, Kentucky Historical Society Research Fellowship, VCU Publishing Research Award, and the William P. Heidrich Research Fellowship. Jasper received his BA from Virginia Commonwealth University in African American Studies in 2016.