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Call for Papers - 11th Annual Critical Disability Studies Student Association (CDSSA) Conference - York University

York University’s Critical Disability Studies Student Association (CDSSA) is pleased to announce that our eleventh annual conference will be held on Keele campus on April 8th, 2016. The CDSSA invites graduate students, community researchers, and activists to submit proposals by February 1st 2016. This year’s theme, Crippin’ Canada, pays homage to the multiple ways in which people with disabilities and their allies have worked to challenge dominant structures and modes of representation.

The act/art of crippin’ is about questioning and resisting conceptions of normalcy as well as the assumptions and practices that attempt to disappear, regulate, and rationalize difference. Robert McRuer (2006), in crippin’ queer theorist Butler’s performativity toward compulsory and normative able-embodiment, enjoins us to imagine otherwise. One of the goals of this year’s conference is to foster a safe space to have thoughtful discussion about what disability studies is and how to make it a more inclusive field. We invite those who do not identify with any of the categories mentioned in this call to submit proposals that would challenge our understandings of crip theory and disability studies more broadly, especially in ways that are more inclusive of racialized disabled bodies.

Proposals can include but are not limited to: papers, workshops, and arts-based presentations. Possible topics include:

Crip Consciousness and National Identities

Crippin’ Settler Colonialism

Crippin’ Capital – Disability and Anti-Globalization Movements

Crip Critiques of Nugenics Coalitions and Solidarities

Crip Art Politics of Identification First Nations’ Perspectives on Disability

Crippin’ & Queerin’ – LGBTQ Activism in Canada as it Intersects with Disability

Crippin’ Canadian Law, Policy, and Education

Crippin’ Economic Structures – Employment/Unemployment/Underemployment

Feminist Crips

Cripepistemologies

Interested applicants should submit a short 250-300 word abstract as a word document or PDF file by February 1st 2016 to cdssa@yugsa.ca. Abstracts may include summaries of workshops or performance pieces. If you will be presenting an arts-based project, you may wish to submit a photo, video, or other relevant summary rather than a written abstract.

Please email us if you have any questions at cdssa@yugsa.ca Website: https://cdssa.wordpress.com/

The Critical Disability Studies Students’ Association (CDSSA) is an organization based out of the Critical Disability Studies (CDIS) graduate program at York University. The CDSSA exists to support disability researchers, artists, and activists. Our aim is to create spaces where disability researchers, artists, and activists can connect, collaborate, and share knowledge. This site is also a place where current and incoming CDIS students can learn about the students’ association, the CDIS program, and accessing resources at York.