Deadline for proposals: Oct 1, 2015. Questions? contact claude.desmarais@ubc.ca
CFP: Critical Disability Studies, Popular Culture Association conference in Seattle, March 22-25, 2016.
Proposed panels in Critical Disability Studies:
Panel I: 25 years of Implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Papers are sought that deal with the American with Disabilities Act 25 years after its implementation. Papers with a focus on policy, but also with different approaches are welcome. What are the achievements and the failures of the Act (or of American society), and how are these represented, and by whom? How does policy need to be reshaped, changed, adjusted to improve implementation. Can it be done so as to forward greater rights for all Americans? And what is the impact of the Act on other, foreign jurisdictions?
Panel II: c. Film and Media and Disability. Papers are sought that look at the representation of disability in film and media. Is there any noticeable shift in such representations, do individual cases give us any particular insight into this area of study? Has disability simply become one of the flavours of the month, only to be pushed underground by the reality show trend, no matter the prominence the genre might seem to provide? Is disability simply “normal,” and somehow normative? What do films and media tell us about our understanding of disability?
Panel III. Codifying Disability Practice: Institutions and the Ever-Changing World of Disability. Papers are sought that examine how institutions codify disability practice. How this practice is shaped, by whom, to what ends, and what is to be gained or lost by creating policy blueprints that might, at least superficially, appear to advance the rights of those with disabilities.
Panel IV. Disability and Health Care. Papers are sought that look at, examine and present findings on the interaction of disability and health care. Do the two work well, could they work better? What is lacking for that to happen? Does disability need to disable health care in its present state, and make it work better? Or vice versa? Or should the two work together, but apart?
Panel V. The Culture(s) of Disability. Papers are sought that examine the culture(s) of disability. Is there one disability culture still? What are the disability cultures, and how do they mingle? Is there a disadvantage to disability cultures, a profound loss if there is no monolithic (or otherwise fashioned) disability culture?
Panel VI. Theory of Disability. Papers are sought that look at the theory of disability, and examine where the field is placed in relation to a number of other fields that seek, among other actions, to secure basic human rights for individuals who have faced and still face discrimation.
Panel VII. Autism. Papers are sought that look at the various representations of autism, as well as papers that look at the challenges to the autism community, and to society as a whole, as it both learns and shapes autism into a social code for discussing interpersonal relationships at work and in private.
Panel VIII. Mental Health/PTSD/CPTSD and Disability. Papers are sought that examine the connections between mental health, PTSD, CPTSD, and disability. How are the disability community, and the mental health community, dealing with the growing awareness about PTSD and CPTSD? Are there ways these communities can create synergies, are there ways that they impede each other? What is the current, and changing view on the connections between mental health and disability?
To submit your paper proposal for any of these panels, please go to:
http://pcaaca.org/national-conference/proposing-a-presentation-at-the-conference/
If you should have any comments or questions, please feel free to email me at: claude.desmarais@ubc.ca
Thank you, and please forward this to other interested colleagues.
Claude Desmarais