Supported by the Simpson Center for the Humanities in 2015-2016. Contact Heather Evans to learn more! hdevans@uw.edu
https://simpsoncenter.org/projects/disability-studies
The University of Washington has no graduate-level program for scholars working in the field of critical disability studies (known as disability studies or DS.) Disability studies is a quickly growing field that approaches disability from a social-justice perspective. TheDisability Studies Graduate Interest Group (DS GIG) brings together young scholars from an 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 in the field.
The group has three main functions. First, it serves as a writing accountability group. Participation from students at differing stages of their graduate careers and from different departmental homes enrich the ability of participants to draft, workshop, and polish publication-worthy manuscripts targeted toward interdisciplinary academic journals. Second, in addition to building networks laterally among graduate students, the group works to increase vertical networking opportunities through quarterly interactive Skype sessions with leading disability studies scholars throughout the country. Lastly, the group partners with UW Disability Studies faculty to organize a symposium at the end of the academic year to engage with the larger DS community on campus and in our region to strengthen the existing undergraduate DS program and promote the intellectual mentoring of our senior colleagues.