The Society for Disability Studies 2007 conference is coming up quickly,
and we hope you will join us in the 25th Anniversary year of SDS!
Please visit the SDS website for more information and for registration
forms at: http://www.uic.edu/orgs/sds/annualmeetings.html. We encourage
you to use the secure online registration system.
Some important dates:
1) Presenters must register by April 1 (without registration by 4/1,
presentations will be dropped from the program)
2) Early bird conference registration discounts end on 4/15 (substantial
discounts apply with early bird). We also encourage you to become or renew
your SDS membership at this time as significant discounts are offered to
our members (you can become a member at the SDS website too and should do
this prior to conference registration).
3) The Hilton Hotel Seattle Airport is the SDS conference site, and
discount sleeping room rates are available ($159 for single or double
room). These rates end on 5/8 (or whenever the room block is full so
recommend registering early)-- you can book directly with the SDS room
block online with the Hilton by going
to:
<http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/groups/personalized/seaahhh_sds/index.jhtml>http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/groups/personalized/seaahhh_sds/index.jhtml
(If you call the Hilton, please make sure to book under the SDS conference
room block to receive discounts, and to help us fill our room block).
A copy of the preliminary conference program will be posted on
3/26. Please note that individual presentation times may be subject to
change as we receive presenter confirmations so the program is preliminary
at this time.
Following is information on the conference theme:
Society for Disability Studies 20th Annual Conference
Seattle, May 31-June 2, 2007
“Disability & Disability Studies: Works in Progress”
2007 marks the 25th year of the Society for Disability Studies, and the
field has changed dramatically over the last quarter century. As Disability
Studies continues to grow, increasing its presence in university
departments, cultural criticism, and art and knowledge production, SDS
wants to take this anniversary opportunity to reevaluate the discipline and
reflect on the state of the field. Current Disability Studies scholarship
differs from much of that which precedes it, most notably in its efforts to
be more inclusive, offering a more complex conception of what constitutes
“disability.” Rather than remaining rooted in a particular cultural moment
or ideological understanding, Disability Studies is a work in progress.
In order to encourage this kind of self-reflection, both as a field and an
organization, this year’s conference addresses the idea of “works in
progress,” paying particular attention to the following themes:
Disability is a work in progress. What does “progress” mean in terms of
disability? How has the notion of “progress” itself been used to justify
the oppression of people with disabilities, and how can these histories
serve as points of coalition with other peoples marginalized in the name of
“progress?” How have ideologies of “progress” been used to create and
maintain categories of “disability,” and how do these histories inform and
inflect histories of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation,
nation, and religion? How are definitions and representations of disability
in progress, shifting according to the needs of capital, policy, and
resistance? How are current immigration practices and debates building on
existing notions of disability? Are the increases in disabled veterans in
the US and its allies, and the massive numbers of peoples injured by
occupations, invasions, insurgencies, and other conflicts worldwide,
transforming our understandings of “disability” in terms of theoretical
analysis or public policy?
Disability Studies is a work in progress. In its efforts to inform
disability policy and understanding, the discipline has too often neglected
salient categories of analysis. What issues have been swept under the rug
and at what costs? What are the reasons for this lack of critical
examination? As Disability Studies has grown, how has it marginalized
particular methodologies, theoretical frameworks, or knowledge bases? Will
the discipline benefit from a broader, more comprehensive focus, and if so,
how? How does current Disability Studies scholarship vary from previous
Disability Studies scholarship? At this stage in the field’s development,
what possibilities for collaboration with other fields and knowledges
exist? Where is the discipline headed?
SDS is a work in progress. Consider, for instance, the organization’s
recent efforts to integrate race and ethnicity. Where are the points of
future growth? How might SDS develop an international or transnational
focus, more actively engage individuals with intellectual disabilities,
facilitate the inclusion of grassroots activists, and encourage academic
and/or political involvement with questions of war and immigration? What
barriers currently prevent the participation and inclusion of these
individuals and concerns? What role, if any, has SDS played in the
construction of these barriers? How are artists, scholars, and activists
deconstructing them, and what might the organization learn from their
efforts?
Access is a work in progress. Often, the tendency at conferences is for
participants to present completed work. This can have the effect of the
presenter talking at the audience instead of to them. This conference
encourages participants to try out innovative forms of access while bearing
in mind ways of actively engaging the audience. For example, how can
participants share their work in creative, less traditional ways in order
to increase access? What can participants do not only to honor but further
SDS’s access policies? How might conference access itself, and particularly
presentation access, be a matter of research and discussion?
“Work” is a work in progress. Arguably, barriers often exist between
Disability Studies scholarship and disability activism. One aspect of this
conference will be to address these barriers through the lens of “work,”
engaging divides between scholarship and activism in new ways. How might
scholars and activists conceptualize their work differently? Are some kinds
of work valued more than others? In what ways does each group’s work inform
the other’s? How might insights from disability research translate into
community activism, and how might activist projects be translated into
research projects? How might the two groupsDisability Studies scholars and
disability activistswork collaboratively? What are the benefits in drawing
firm lines between these two approaches to disability, and what might be
the attendant risks in doing so?
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