Disability and Disciplines:
The International Conference on Educational, Cultural, and Disability Studies
1-2 July, 2015
Centre for Culture and Disability Studies, Faculty of Education, Liverpool Hope University
Keynote Speakers: Julie Allan (University of Birmingham, UK) Peter Beresford (Brunel University London, UK) David Mitchell (George Washington University, USA) Sharon Snyder (George Washington University, USA)
When we think of disability in Higher Education we are likely to think in terms of access, Learning Support Plans, and so on. These and other such things are of great importance but only represent part of the approach proposed at the biennial CCDS conference. What we explore is a more complex understanding of disability that challenges assumptions and prejudicial actions but also recognises qualities and positivity. While inclusive education is generally an improvement on integration and segregation, it often constitutes little more than what, in The Biopolitics of Disability (2015), David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder call a weakened strain of inclusionism. Until disability is recognised in the context of alternative lives and values that neither enforce nor reify normalcy we cannot truly encounter the material and ethical alternatives disabled lives engage. Inclusion may well be a legal requirement in some parts of the world, and perhaps a moral imperative everywhere, but it is also an educational opportunity. Not only students but also staff who identify as disabled should, as Mitchell and Snyder assert, recognize this peripheral embodiment as something to be cultivated as a form of alternative expertise, meaning that disability can become an active, unabashed, and less stigmatising part of classroom discourse. The aim of this biennial conference, then, is to encourage the transformation of academic disciplines by appreciating rather than avoiding disability.
For booking information, please visit the Online Store. In order to attend the conference you are required to book before 20 June. This will allow us time to send details to catering and accommodation, and to finalise the programme. Unfortunately, the online store will be closed thereafter. Finally, in order to keep up with changes to the programme you can visit the Disability and Disciplines Facebook page (the current programme can be found under the photos tab). For further information, please contact us via email.