Speakers and artists: Patty Berne, Mindie Lind, Susan Schweik, Elizabeth Wheeler. Plan to join us!
Pacific and Western Disability Studies Symposium:
Connecting Disability Studies, Disability Justice, and Disability Arts
Free public events May 21-23, 2015, on the University of Washington Seattle campus. Join us!
Information about accessibility, directions, and parking can be found here: https://depts.washington.edu/disstud/accessibility-locations-parking-2015-symposium
Please be scent-free.
Lunch will be provided on Friday, May 22. RSVP required for lunch, using this form by May 18: http://goo.gl/forms/qeQzGQlKdK
We request that you RSVP for any Symposium events you wish to attend, using this form: http://goo.gl/forms/qeQzGQlKdK
CFP: Workshop for Emerging Scholars and Activists [now closed]
Dust off an old paper, showcase a work in progress, or simply tell us about the awesome work you are doing in disability studies, disability justice or disability arts. All submissions welcome! We have extended the deadline for abstracts to Wednesday, May 6, 2015, 5pm. For the full CFP and submission instructions, please go to: https://depts.washington.edu/disstud/CFP_pacific-western-workshop
Symposium schedule in brief:
Updated: Thursday, May 21, 4:00-6:30pm
Disability Arts and Culture [refreshments 4pm]
Kane Hall, Room 225
4:15 Music by Mindie Lind
5:00 Film Sins Invalid: An Unshamed Claim to Beauty [contains sexually explicit content]
5:30 Q&A with Mindie Lind and Patty Berne and ET Russian
Friday, May 22, 9am-4pm
Critical Collaborations
William H. Gates Hall (School of Law), Room 138
9:15 Welcome
9:30 Susan Schweik (UC Berkeley), keynote “A Feather in a Hurricane and the Law of Falling Bodies: Disability Research and the Politics of Storytelling”
10:45 Elizabeth Wheeler (U of Oregon), Susan Schweik (UC Berkeley), Sara Goering (UW), Sushil Oswal (UW Tacoma), “Cultivating and Connecting Resources”
12:30 Lunch
2:00 Patty Berne (UC Berkeley), with ET Russian (UW), Seema Bahl (Bellevue College), “Exploring Divergences and Convergences of Disability Studies, Disability Rights, and Disability Justice"
Saturday, May 23, 2-4pm
Disability Justice
UB (Student Union Building), Room 250
Sins Invalid, featuring co-founder and director Patty Berne, "Re-envisioning the Revolutionary Body: Centering Disability and Embodiment within Social Justice" [please note, this event includes films and discussion with sexually explicit content]
Symposium website: http://tinyurl.com/PWDS2015UW
Questions should be directed to the UW Disability Studies Program. Email: uwdisabilitystudies@gmail.com.
Accessibility:
We will have ASL interpretation and CART captioning for all of these events.
The rooms are wheelchair accessible. There are elevators to the second floor of Kane Hall. Kane 225 has steps and a wide ramp down to a flat, all-purpose room. Law School 138 is a tiered court room layout, with wheelchair access only at the upper row by the doors and the lowest row where there's seating at the same level as the presenters.
While we cannot guarantee scent-free spaces, we do ask that our attendees not wear any scented products, in order to work towards safer, more accessible environments at UW. In particular, please avoid wearing perfume/cologne and clothing that smells like smoke. For more information about being fragrance-free, see: http://eastbaymeditation.org/accessibility/PDF/How-to-Be-Fragrance-Free-.pdf. In each room, we plan to set up fragrance-free areas near air purifiers.
Kane 225 has carpeting that was installed in late 2013. It uses Adhesive Healthbond 100, a water-based premium adhesive with zero calculated VOCs. It is a low-odor adhesive and is CRI Green Label Plus approved. The carpet is cleaned only with a hot-water extraction.
Law 138 has carpeting that was installed in 2003. This is the information we have about carpet and adhesive: Carpet: Prince Street Technologies. Adhesive: likely either Resource 1000 or 1200 broadloom adhesive.
HUB 250 has carpeting that was recently installed with the building renovation. The carpet is "Lee’s Sixth Sense, A Premonition, meets or exceeds the Carpet & Rug Institutes (CRI) Green Label limits of section 01 33 29, (EQ 4.3). Carpet bears the IAQ (Indoor Air Quality label from the CRI." The adhesive is "Approved adhesive recommended by Manufacturer for direct glue-down installation meets or exceeds CRI Green Label limits of section 01 33 29, (EQ 4.3)."
Here are the cleaning products used in the HUB: 3M 8L - Green Seal™ Certified high-performance, all-purpose cleaner, used on floors, walls and other nonporous surfaces; 3M 1L - Green Seal™ Certified non-streaking cleaner for windows, glass and mirrors and other mirrored surfaces; Procyon Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner - Green Seal™ Certified carpet and upholstery cleaner, completely soap free, odor free and non-toxic.
In Kane Hall, the only accessible washrooms are on the basement level. We'll put up signs on all floors with directions to the elevators.
The Law School and HUB have accessible washrooms on all floors.
To request disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office, preferably at least 10 days in advance, at: 206.543.6450 (voice), 206.543.6452 (TTY), 206.685.7264 (fax), or email at dso@uw.edu.
Locations & Parking on UW Seattle campus:
General information:
About parking on UW Seattle campus: http://www.washington.edu/facilities/transportation/park
Campus map: http://www.washington.edu/maps/
UW Access Guide for Persons with Disabilities, maps and diagrams of accessible routes and entrances: http://www.washington.edu/admin/ada/newada.php
UW "Disability Parking" guidelines: http://www.washington.edu/facilities/transportation/park-disability. "Wheelchair (WC) disability permits holders may park in any wheelchair or disability space. Holders of Disability (D) Permits may park in disability areas but not in wheelchair spaces. Wheelchair and Disability permit holders may also park in other available regular spaces in their assigned parking area. Stop at a campus gatehouse and request disability or wheelchair parking as needed."
For your convenience, parking for the Symposium has been assigned to the “Central Plaza Garage, Levels C2-C6” [Kane, Law, HUB], “N22” Lot [Law], and “N1” Lot [HUB]. Please note that although a parking assignment has been made, payment in full is still required as you enter campus. Stop at a campus gatehouse and advise the Parking Specialist that you have a parking assignment under “Pacific & Western Disability Studies Symposium.” A parking permit, with your designated parking lot, will be printed and given to you to display on your vehicles dashboard as instructed. If you need disability accommodations please advise the Parking Specialist.
Estimated price per vehicle, per day:
$15.00 Arrival prior to 5:00pm, Monday – Friday. If your visit is less than four hours, be sure to stop at the gatehouse as you exit for a prorated refund.
$5.00* Arrival after 5:00pm, Monday - Friday, and prior to 12:00pm Saturday. If your visit is less than one hour, be sure to stop at a campus gatehouse as you exit for a prorated refund.
*Except Central Plaza Garage – $10.00 after 5:00pm M-F and 7:00am-12:00pm (noon) on Saturday
May 21, 4:00-6:30pm, in Kane Hall, Room 225, for "Disability Arts and Culture"
Address: 4069 Spokane Ln, Seattle, WA 98105. Directions & parking: http://www.css.washington.edu/KNE_Directions
May 22, 9:00am-4:00pm, in William H. Gates School of Law, Room 138, for "Critical Collaborations"
Address: 4293 Memorial Way, Seattle, WA 98195. Directions & parking: https://www.law.washington.edu/About/Direction.aspx
May 23, 2:00pm-4:00pm, in Husky Union Building (HUB), Room 250, for "Disability Justice"
Address: 4001 Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA 98195. Directions & parking: http://depts.washington.edu/thehub/home/directions/ Note: Free parking on campus begins at noon on Saturdays. Disability parking is available in Lot N-22, just north of the HUB. A valid N-22 parking permit is required in order to park there.
Symposium schedule in full:
Thursday, May 21, 4:00-6:30pm, Kane Hall, Room 225 (Walker-Ames Room)
Disability Arts and Culture, with Mindie Lind and Sins Invalid
4:00 Refreshments.
4:15 Performance by Seattle-based musician Mindie Lind. Mindie was the winner of KEXP's Pianos in the Parks contest, was honored as City Arts Magazine Artist of the Year, and had an opening spot on HBO star Lena Dunham's national tour.
5:00 Screening of the documentary Sins Invalid: An Unshamed Claim to Beauty (contains sexually explicit content). Sins Invalid is a performance project on disability and sexuality that incubates and celebrates artists with disabilities, centralizing artists of color and queer and gender-variant artists as communities who have been historically marginalized from social discourse.
5:30 Q&A with Mindie Lind and Patty Berne and ET Russian of Sins Invalid
Please join us for this great lineup of artists! There will be refreshments starting at 4pm.
Friday, May 22, 9:00am-4:00pm, William H. Gates Hall (UW School of Law), Room 138
Pacific and Western Disability Studies: Critical Collaborations
Disability studies is a dynamic and growing field in the Pacific Northwest and West Coast. To celebrate and enhance collaborations around the region, Friday’s activities will feature presentations and conversations with leading scholars and activists. Symposium panelists will address: how can disability studies make connections to allies in other disciplines and across educational institutions, and with disability communities and cultural activism in disability justice? At the event and on a virtual workshop platform open to all registered participants in the symposium, we will showcase the research of emerging scholars, students, and activists from a variety of disciplines whose work is informed by and contributes to disability studies. To register for the symposium, use this form: http://goo.gl/forms/qeQzGQlKdK
Lunch will be provided to attendees who register in advance. Use this form by May 18th: http://goo.gl/forms/qeQzGQlKdK
Agenda
8:45-9:15 Registration
9:15 Welcome
9:30 Keynote by Susan Schweik of the University of California Berkeley, "A Feather in a Hurricane and the Law of Falling Bodies: Disability Research and the Politics of Storytelling”
This talk will explore a remarkable moment in Iowa during the Great Depression. A group of institutionalized so-called “feeble-minded” women, together with the low-wage women workers who were called their “attendants” and under the scrutiny of social science researchers, took up the problem that American society was framing as “low I.Q,” offering a radical, iconoclastic solution that was quickly cut short but had lasting effects. Focusing on the politics and ethics of telling this story, Schweik will reflect on its import and its challenges to disability studies.
10:45 “Cultivating and Connecting Resources”
This panel aims to address the past, present, and future of disability studies in our region. We'll discuss developments at our educational institutions and consider how creating a consortium could facilitate collaboration, mentoring, and the growth of research and teaching in disability studies. Please join our panelists for a lively conversation: Elizabeth Wheeler of the University of Oregon, Susan Schweik of UC Berkeley, Sara Goering of the University of Washington, and Sushil Oswal of UW Tacoma.
12:30 Lunch [provided for those who RSVP by May 18 at http://goo.gl/forms/qeQzGQlKdK]
2:00 “Exploring Divergences and Convergences of Disability Studies, Disability Rights, and Disability Justice”
The development and dynamism of disability studies is in many ways an outgrowth of concepts generated by the disability rights movement and its phenomenal historical successes. More recently, the term disability justice is often heard. What does disability justice connotate and where did this framework develop? What does it offer distinct from a disability rights perspective? Please join Seattle based activist-scholar Seema Bahl and artist-activist ET Russian in exploring these questions with Patty Berne, Co-Founder and Director of Sins Invalid, a disability justice based performance project on disability and sexuality.
Confirmed speakers on Friday!
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Patty Berne is a Co-Founder and Director of Sins Invalid and currently an instructor at UC Berkeley. Her background includes advocacy for immigrants, work toward alternatives to the criminal legal system, and disability and LGBTQI advocacy within the field of reproductive and genetic technologies.
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Susan Schweik is a Professor of English and Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities at UC Berkeley. She is the author of “The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public,” and has been involved with the development of disability studies at Berkeley for 15 years.
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Elizabeth Wheeler is an Associate Professor of English and the author of the forthcoming “HandiLand: Kids with Disabilities Infiltrate Public Culture.” She is part of the Disability Studies Initiative at the University of Oregon.
Saturday, May 23, 2-4pm, HUB (Student Union Building), Room 250
Disability Justice, with Patty Berne of Sins Invalid
Patty Berne will present on “Re-envisioning the Revolutionary Body: Centering Disability and Embodiment within Social Justice.” Patty is a co-founder of the disability justice framework and of the performance group Sins Invalid. Patty’s background includes advocacy for immigrants and mental health support for survivors of violence. She was featured in the documentary film “Fixed: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement.” Her experiences as a queer Haitian-Japanese power-chair using woman provide grounding for her work creating “liberated zones” for oppressed people.
Event description
Disability Justice is a nascent movement-building framework, which holds the value and power of the disabled body/mind as a central tenet. To communicate this value, disability justice based performance project Sins Invalid asserts "our stories, imbedded in analysis, offer paths from identity politics to unity amongst all oppressed people, laying a foundation for a collective claim of liberation and beauty.” Claiming disability identity within multiple communities and through multiple lenses strengthens our understandings of our complexities and resilience. Patty Berne, artistic director of Sins Invalid, will talk about the role of embodiment in movement-building work and why her project focuses on sexuality, and she will lead a guided screening and discussion of films on sex and disability as part of transformative cultural work and a disability justice politic.
Please note: The films include sexually explicit and s/m content. We are working toward having a sexual violence prevention / intervention organization present in the lobby to support people if needed.
Contact Information
Symposium website: http://tinyurl.com/PWDS2015UW
Questions should be directed to the UW Disability Studies Program. Email: uwdisabilitystudies@gmail.com.
Symposium sponsors:
D Center (Disability and Deaf Cultural Center)
ASUW Student Disability Commission
Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity
American Sign Language Minor Program
Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Department
UW Tacoma Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
UW Tacoma Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
Law, Societies, and Justice Program
Education for Empowerment
Graduate and Professional Student Senate Diversity Committee (GPSS)
Speaker and Performer Bios
Mindie Lind
Mindie is a Seattle-based singer and songwriter, formerly of the group Inly. She has been grabbing the attention of the music and arts scene as the winner of KEXP’s Pianos in the Parks contest and the City Arts Magazine Artist of the Year. Her music video for “Mississippi Misfit” got her an opening spot on HBO star Lena Dunham’s national tour. She’s heading back to the studio this year to start work on her next full-length album. Music videos: Lowlands, Mississippi Misfit, Hungry N Fed.
Susan Schweik
Susan is the Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities, and Professor of English at the University of California Berkeley. Her book “The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public” examines in novel ways the intersections of disability, race, gender, and class in early 20th-century law and society. Her latest project is “A Feather in a Hurricane and the Law of Falling Bodies: Disability Research and the Politics of Storytelling.” She has been a recipient of UC Berkeley’s Distinguished Teaching Award, a Presidential Chair in Undergraduate Education for Disability Studies, and a co-director of the Disability Studies Program.
Elizabeth Wheeler
Elizabeth is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Oregon. She specializes in post-1945 American literature, youth literature and popular culture, disability studies, cultural studies, and community literacy. Her forthcoming book, “HandiLand: Kids with Disabilities Infiltrate Public Culture,” reveals new understandings of disabled kids in contemporary teen and children’s literature, online communities, parents’ oral histories, and politicians’ speeches. She is a leader of the Disability Studies Initiative at the University of Oregon.
Patty Berne
Patty is a Co-Founder and Director of Sins Invalid, a performance project on disability and sexuality that centers marginalized voices. She hails from San Francisco, where she is a prominent community organizer and the co-creator of the disability justice movement. She is also currently an instructor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of California Berkeley. Her background includes advocacy for immigrants, work toward alternatives to the criminal legal system, international support work, and offering mental health support for survivors of violence. She was featured in the documentary film “Fixed: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement” for advocating for disability rights and LGBTQI community perspectives within the field of reproductive and genetic technologies. Her experiences as a queer Haitian-Japanese power-chair using woman provide grounding for her work creating “liberated zones” for oppressed people.
Seema Bahl is currently teaching Disability in Society at Bellevue College and has given several lectures at the University of Washington and other large organizations on disability justice issues. She is co-founder of Seattle Disability Justice Collective, a grassroots collective that organizes and provides space for cultural, social and political events in the Pacific Northwest to promote disability justice and awareness.
ET RUSSIAN is an artist, author, filmmaker, performer, activist, educator, and healthcare provider living in Seattle. Russian is the author of The Ring of Fire Anthology (2014), has published work in Gay Genius(2011) and The Collective Tarot (2008), has performed in productions by Sins Invalid and dance company Light Motion, and co-directed the movie Third Antenna: A documentary about the radical nature of drag (2001).