Disability Studies

Disability Studies is a growing field that approaches disability from a social justice perspective. It pushes back against a dominant narrative that disability is a condition to be cured or minimized through medical, technical, or other intervention. Disability Studies prioritizes voices of people with disabilities, positioning disability as a legitimate way of being and knowing. It also posits that disability is unique to everyone who encounters it, and is varied and nuanced through interactions with society, the body, and other factors. Contributions of the field include how disability is articulated in various fields (such as policy and medicine), how disability, society, bodies, and other agents interact, and intersectionality that includes disability.

This graduate research cluster brings together young scholars from a wide array of fields—including sociology, social work, public policy, education, law and society, gender and sexuality, rehabilitation medicine, information and technology—to nourish each other’s scholarship, build an intellectual community, and support graduate student publication.