Bio: (1935–1994) American sociologist. Zola was educated at Harvard University and later taught in the Department of Sociology at Brandeis University from 1963 until his death in 1994. He founded the journal Disability Studies Quarterly, served as chair of the Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association, and played a central role in the creation of the Society for Disability Studies and the development of disability studies as an interdisciplinary field. In addition to his academic work, Zola was a committed activist for disability rights and was instrumental in pressuring Congress to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Zola’s early experience with polio, followed by a serious automobile accident, resulted in orthopedic and neurological impairments that affected his mobility. These personal experiences shaped both his scholarly focus and his activism, leading him to concentrate on issues of health, medicine, self-help movements, and disability. He was a driving force behind the institutionalization of disability studies as a distinct field of research. In addition to his work on disability, Zola also conducted research on gambling and juvenile delinquency.

Zola’s approach to the sociology of medicine and disability was strongly influenced by symbolic interactionism and pragmatism, with particular attention to the subjective experience of disability and the embodied individual. His doctoral research examined how different cultural groups—Irish Americans, Italian Americans, and Jewish communities in Boston—responded to situations requiring medical care and how they differed in their perceptions of pain.

Main works

Origins of Crime; A New Evaluation of the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study (1959);

“Medicine as an Institution of Social Control”, in Sociological Review (1972);

The Medicalizing of Society – Medicine as an Institution of Social Control (1972);

Organizational issues in the Delivery of Health Services (ed.). (1974);

Poverty and Health: A Sociological Analysis (ed.). (1975);

Missing Pieces: A Chronicle of Living With a Disability (1982);

Ordinary Lives: Voices of Disability and Disease (1982);

“Bringing our Bodies and Ourselves back in”, in Journal of Health & Social Behavior (1991).