Disability Matters aims to transform health research and environments through a paradigm shift to disability as the driving subject of inquiry.
I am so excited to launch Disability Matters. This is an ambitious programme of work that hopes to develop anti-ableist and anti-disablist approaches to scholarship; broaden health research priorities, innovate research methodologies, promote inclusive research environments, encourage more positive disability representations and build a new generation of disabled and disability-focused health researchers. Our programme of work will generate transformative equity, diversity and inclusion knowledge; thus supporting Wellcome’s strategy to lead the science and health sector in challenging ableism and disablism in the practices and cultures of health research. Most importantly the work foregrounds the contributions of disabled researchers and disabled people's organisations as they lead new ways of thinking about disability, health, research and science.
Dan Goodley, Lead Investigator
You can find subtitled films from our co-investigators on our Twitter/X @Dismatters and our Instagram disability_matters and the project website gives more information
Announcement from the team:
As part of the first phase of work, join us in December 2023 for a series of Online Symposia. We'll be welcoming 12 different disability studies presenters from around the world to explore how their work has been transformed by engaging with critical disability studies.
Book your free ticket now at:
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/disabilitymatters
Overview of speakers
Mon 4 Dec 2023 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM GMT, Online, Zoom
Barbara Gibson
Barbara Gibson BMR(PT), MSc, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Toronto, Canada. Her research and scholarship examine the intersections of social, cultural, and institutional practices in producing health, inclusion/exclusion, and identity with disabled young people.
Janice McLaughlin
Professor Janice McLaughlin works to explore how childhood disability or illness is framed from within the worlds of medicine, community and family. Her work has developed through partnership with disabled children and their families, organisations that advocate with them and other researchers. She examines the intersections of inequality, citizenship, identity, embodiment and care.
Sarah Glerup
Sarah Glerup is a Danish activist, speaker and writer with a particular interest in human rights and social development, particularly minority issues and inclusion. She offers regular media contributions around numerous issues including accessibility (such as wheelchair access etc.).
Tue 5 Dec 2023 8:00 AM - 9:15 AM GMT, Online, Zoom
Shaun Grech
Shaun Grech is a Senior Academic Consultant in Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction with CBM, director of The Critical Institute (Malta) and editor in chief of the international journal, Disability and the Global South. His critical interdisciplinary work looks at disability in contexts of rural poverty, disasters and humanitarian settings.
Jan Grue
Jan Grue is a professor of Sociology at the University of Oslo. He is currently PI of the research project “The Politics of Disability Identity”, which investigates the contemporary social and cultural preconditions of disability inclusion. His memoir “I Live a Life Like Yours” (2021) is published by Pushkin Press in the UK.
Gareth Thomas
Gareth M. Thomas is a Reader in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University, UK. He is a sociologist interested in disability, health/illness, medicine and reproduction.
Mon 11 Dec 2023 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM GMT, Online, Zoom
Christina Lee
Christina Lee (she/her) recently completed her PhD in English and Medical Humanities at King’s College London. Her thesis was titled ‘The Care of the Dis-ease Self: A Foucauldian Reading of Buddhist Meditation Memoirs as Narratives of Healing’. Her research looks at experiences of illness and disability, embodiment, and intersectionality.
Stuart Murray
Stuart Murray is Professor of Contemporary Literatures and Film in the School of English at the University of Leeds. He has worked in Critical Disability Studies for over 20 years, written/edited multiple books and articles on disability representation, and was among the very first University academics to teach courses on disability, literature, film and cultural theory.
Sana Rizvi
Dr Sana Rizvi is a Senior Lecturer in Education and Early Childhood Studies at Liverpool John Moores University. She is passionate about teaching on the subjects of racial inequalities in education, critical perspectives on disability studies and inclusive education, and on qualitative methodologies. She has presented her research at several international and national conferences, and has also published research in the field of research methods, racial inequality and disability studies.
Tue 12 Dec 2023 8:00 AM - 9:15 AM GMT, Online, Zoom
Hannah Morgan
Hannah is Associate Professor in the Centre for Disability Studies, University of Leeds, whose research and scholarship is located at the intersection of Social Policy and Disability Studies and is particularly concerned with the experiences of disabled people who use health and social care services and with professional practice(s) in this sphere.
Kate Sang
Professor Kate Sang of the Heriot-Watt University Business School leads the multidisciplinary EDI Caucus team which is, in part, promoting disability inclusion across the higher education institution sector.
Geert Van Hove
Geert Van Hove is an Emeritus Professor at Ghent University (Disability Studies). For the last 25 years, he has been closely involved with families involving their child with disabilities into mainstream schools and with the Flemish Self-advocacy movement. He is a basketball-lover, a jazz cat and a passionate cyclist.
