Publications

We are the home to an emerging  Disability Matters Scholarship collection and help curate Disability Dialogues. 

Below are some of our work:

• Conferences
• Lectures and talks
• Blogs
• Podcasts
• Seminars

You can also read some publications from members of our team.

If you would like to access our work in an alternative format, or have questions about our research, please get in touch.

Conferences

Disability Studies Conference, Leeds, 2024
Members of the team reported on the challenges of supporting disability research in the neoliberal academy with reference to a working paper written by Rhea Halsey, Dan Goodley and Rebecca Lawthom

2nd International Conference on Disability Studies, Thessaloniki, 2024
Rhea Halsey and Dan Goodley presented papers on behalf of the Disability Matters programme at the 2nd International Conference on Disability Studies: Disability Matters: Critically Examining Disablism and Ableism: A collaboration between the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Education, Department of Primary Education, School of Education, University of Sheffield, and iHuman, University of Sheffield.

EDIS Inclusive Leadership, 2023
Dan Goodley was invited to present as part of a panel on Inclusive Leadership at the EDIS2023 event at the Francis Crick institute in London. Dan joined Hamied Haroon, the Chair of National Association of Disabled Staff Networks, to lobby for the centralisation of disabled people in the conceptualisation and management of research. 

Nordic Network of Disability Research, 2023
Dan Goodley offered a soft international launch of the Disability Matters programme during a session to the Nordic Network of Disability Research which was held in Iceland this year. For many this was a first time to reconnect with critical disability studies scholars post-pandemic. Dan joined other members of the Critical Disability Studies team to present on their research and scholarship. A flyer introducing our work with links to project websites can be found here.

Lectures and talks

‘The Depathologising University’, 2023

The Inclusion Leadership Research Interest Group hosted an event on Thursday 19th June 2025, entitled . The RIG’s Co-Convenors, Dr Beth Holmes, Dr Wendy Conrad and Dr Donnie Adams, were joined by guest speaker, Professor Dan Goodley, Professor of Disability Studies and Education in the University of Sheffield’s School of Education, who discussed his work in the field of Critical Disability Studies, and the ways in which academics, researchers and research professional colleagues are depathologising the disablist and ableist university. You can find a recording of Dan's talk here

Blogs

Polyphony article, 2023 
This article offers a provocation challenging Equality, Diversity and Inclusion discourse from a critical disability studies perspective - written by Dan Goodley and Kirsty Liddiard.

Podcasts

Podcast, Conversations about Arts, Humanities and Health, 2023 
Refers to a series of free, online events where scholars, health professionals, and the public discuss how arts and humanities can inform healthcare. Hosted by The University of Kent and with the support of the Churchill Foundation, these events seek to develop meaningful dialogue and connection between humanities and medicine. Dan Goodley joined colleague Kirsty Liddiard to discuss the ways in which Disability Matter's Scholarship work offers a paradigm shift to disability as driving subject in the medical humanities. A link to the podcast can be found here

Seminars

University of Manchester seminar, 2024
Dan Goodley presented a paper to the University of Manchester's Psychology, Communication and Human Neuroscience (PCHN) Spring seminar on 6th March 2024. 

Publications from our team

Goodley, D., Liddiard, K. and Lawthom, R. (2025) ‘The Depathologising University’, Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 27(1), p. 120–133. Available at: https://doi.org/10.16993/sjdr.1240. How might we think of university bureacracy and administration as well as researcher support as opportunities to enhance  a disability studies agenda in the university?

Goodley, D. (2024). Disability Studies: An interdisciplinary introduction. Third Edition. This book references Disability Matters an a Case Study for exploring questions of theory, methodology and research. 

Titchkosky, T. (2024). Interpretive Methods in Disability Studies: Dyslexia Inflected Inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004241254394. explores how disability studies can take shape as an interpretive method and how disability-perception can influence this.

Goodley, D. (2024). Depathologising the university. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2024.2316007 develops a conversation with decolonisation to pitch a novel mode of engagement; depathologising the university.  The paper is Gold Open Access and available here

Chataika, T. and Goodley, D. (2024). The Routledge Handbook of Postcolonial Disability Studies. London: Routledge, published March 2024). Led, curated and driven by Dr Tsitsi Chataika - with editorial input from Disability Matters's Dan Goodley - this exciting new text challenges the Western, European and North American tendencies of critical disability studies through centring and exploring postcolonial theory. More details can be found here

Goodley, D. (2023). Disability and medical posthumanities. Interconnections: Journal of Posthumanism. Acknowledges Disability Matters as a space in which colleagues are grappling with the pull and push of humanism and posthumanism.

Zhuang, V., Wong, M.E. and Goodley, D. (Editors). (2023). (Eds).  Not Without Us: Perspectives on Disability and Inclusion in Singapore. Singapore: Ethos Books. A ground-breaking text that, for the first time, brings together disabled scholars, community organisers and artists to centralise questions of disability in the Singaporean context. Here is a link to an online discussion about the book.