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Disability Futurity: Interdisciplinary Anticipations of a Non-normative Tomorrow

Disability Futurity refers to the disability of the future and envisions a future marked by a very different concept of “disability”. This speaker series, organised in 2019-2020 by the Carleton University Disability Research Group (CUDRG) in collaboration with the Liverpool Hope University Centre for Culture & Disability Studies (CCDS), sought to re-imagine what disability will mean in the future. It drew together speakers from a range of perspectives that all appreciate the growing significance of disability identity and considered the concept outside of the current dominant category of “normativity”.

The major question it addressed was how to change the dominant perceptions of disability in society. Despite the fluctuating, permeable, and time-contingent nature of disability, it is often characterized in medical, social, and even scholarly circles as a binary condition or “illness”. Disability is too often viewed as the result of a tragic event, rather than an identity with which the majority of us will come to identify at some point in our lives. As a consequence, disability is marginalized in the present, which is why this series looked ahead with optimism towards disability futurity.

Through this exhibit, you will find recordings of the speakers' lectures and the discussions that followed (with closed captions and described video available), English transcripts of the events, some French-translated transcripts, and a range of online resources, further reading, and teaching material. The exhibit pages are arranged in the right-hand menu, labeled with the speakers' names. Click a speaker name to navigate to their seminar page.

The CUDRG would like to thank the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Pauline Jewett Institute of Women's and Gender Studies, CU Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, CU School of Social Work, CU Department of History, and the University of Ottawa Nursing History Research Unit-Unité de recherche sur l’histoire du nursing for their generous support of this series.

CUDRG Disability Futurity Team:

Julia Aguiar, Research Assistant
Brittany Clayton, Transcription Assistant
Chloe Dennis, Research Assistant
Dominique Marshall, Project Lead
Ryan Patterson, Project Director

How to cite this exhibit:
We welcome you to use the information provided in this exhibit and kindly ask that you cite any information you use. 

Chicago format:
Ryan Patterson, 2021. “Disability futurity: Interdisciplinary anticipations of a non-normative tomorrow,” Carleton University Disability Research Group (CUDRG), at https://disabilityfuturity.omeka.net/exhibits/show/disability-futurity--interdisc.