seminar

Studies in Ableism � partnerships, divorce or realignment with disability and cultural studies?
Dr. Fiona A Kumari Campbell, Convenor of Disability Studies, Griffith University (Brisbane)
SCWB - Social Change & Wellbeing Seminar
7th April 2009
12.30 � 2.00 pm - Room NTR
Elizabeth Gaskell Campus 
Dr. Fiona A Kumari Campbell, Convenor of Disability Studies, Griffith University (Brisbane)
Adjunct Professor in Disability Studies at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya in Sri Lanka; and is a person with disability. She has written extensively on issues related to disability�philosophy, desire, law, and technology. Her current research relates to studies in ableism and South Asian approaches to disability. Her work has appeared in Disability & Society, M/C�Media and Culture, Disability Studies Quarterly, Australian Feminist Law Journal, and in S. Danforth and S. Gabel (Eds.), Vital Questions in Disability Studies and Education (2006). Dr. Campbell�s first book, Contours of Ableism: Territories Objects Disability Desire, will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2009.

Abstract
Studies in Ableism (�SiA�) is a recent field of enquiry concerned with the processes and effects of notions of normalcy and anomaly (disability). Compulsory ableness shapes our imagination as to the forms of �perfected� bodies and the kinds of mental and emotional capacities that are valued. An Abled imaginary relies upon the existence of a hitherto unacknowledged imagined shared community of able-bodied/minded people held together by a common ableist homosocial world view that asserts the preferability and compulsoriness of the norms of ableism. �SiA� through its lineage in disability studies is able to make a significant conceptual and methodological contribution to research in cultural studies around the marking and making of difference.�SiA� offers more than a contribution to re-thinking disability. These studies provide a platform for reconsidering the way we think about all bodies and mentalities within the parameters of nature/culture. A move towards �SiA� must not spell a separation with disability studies, rather the focus on ableism is meant to reconfigure a disability studies perspective and extend it. There is a real danger of those who come to �SiA� without being exposed to the rich canon of critical disability studies will not feel inclined, accountable or committed to broader disability studies scholarship. The paper will be the broader challenges and possibilities that �SiA� presents to disability studies and allied disciplines.

For further information please contact: 
Dan Goodley �d.goodley@mmu.ac.uk or
Marilyn Barnett � m.barnett@mmu.ac.uk

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