H-Dis: CFP: Society for Disability Studies (Washington DC, June 2006)

Call For Papers
Society for Disability Studies 19th Annual Conference

Disability Goes Public: Re-Imagining Policy/Protest/Possibilities

June 14th – 17th, 2006

Washington Plaza Hotel, Washington, DC

Co-sponsored by Gallaudet University and Gallaudet University Press
Institute

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Washington, DC, is a
quintessentially divided space. As the nation’s capital, this city
supposedly represents a unified national collectivity, but the city itself
is sharply divided by differences of race, class, language, national origin,
age, gender, sexuality, and disability.  This city’s stark contradictions
are reflected in its demographic inequities: the elected officials who
congregate in Washington, DC, are largely wealthy non-disabled white men,
while the majority of those who live within the borders of the District of
Columbia are people of color, many of them living in extreme poverty.
Further, while Washington, DC, is a beautiful city with expansive public
spaces, it is also a city under surveillance, circumscribed by police
barricades and checkpoints. Indeed, while it is one of the most physically
accessible cities in the United States, it is also a site where access and
democracy have been circumscribed for far too many, including other
sovereign nation states whose public spaces have been dramatically affected
by imperialist economic, political, and social policies shaped and enacted
here. This complicated context makes Washington DC an ideal location for a
re-imagination of policy, protest, and future possibilities. In order to
affirm the possibility of more expansive, diverse, and just “public”
cultures, “Disability Goes Public” in 2006.

Washington, DC, has been a vital meeting ground for the public expression of
ideas and aspirations, where people have gathered to publicly protest
injustice and to help formulate empowering public policy. At Gallaudet
University, the Deaf community has “gone public” by expressing its place in
the civil rights struggle and demanding the full realization of its
aspirations and abilities. Likewise, grassroots activists in the Disability
Rights Movement have clambered up the steps of the Capitol to protest
inaccessible and inhospitable social structures. Feminists have protested to
claim sovereignty over their own bodies, contesting the public/private
dichotomy. AIDS activists have covered the grounds of the Mall with quilts
in commemoration and to demand assistance for those who have died from, and
those who are living with, this epidemic. People of Color and their allies
have also often marched to Washington, DC to protest the historical legacy
of disenfranchisement and discrimination.

Meeting in Washington, DC, allows us to redefine and re-appropriate the term
“public” in transformative and transgressive ways. SDS invites community
activists, artists, and scholars to submit proposals that engage this idea
of the “public” in a lively, critical, rigorous, and provocative manner.

We welcome all creative and serious scholarship in disability studies,
including submissions based on the prompts below. We encourage work that
makes physical, sensory, and intellectual access an integral part of the
presentation. See Presentation Guidelines for Accessibility below.

Some questions you might consider in your proposal:

·        What are the different ways in which the term “public” is defined,
described, delimited, debated, and defended in disability communities?

·        How does public policy shape these debates we have within
disability communities (e.g. social welfare, transportation, homeland
security; education, disaster relief, etc.)

·        How do disabled people mediate between the public/private spheres
and what are the implications of such mediations?

·        What forms does privatization take in the lives of people with
disabilities in the US and abroad? What are the consequences? What kinds of
responses are called for?

·        In what ways has our own history of protest shaped and reshaped the
notion of public?  What have we learned from these protests?

·        What role do grassroots communities play in reshaping public space?
How can academics and activists work together better on this front?

·        In what ways do issues of multiple and intersecting privileges and
oppressions play a role in defining and/or demonstrating the lack of public
space for people of color with disabilities?

·        In what ways do issues of class, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality
productively complicate binary notions of identity in order to re-imagine
transformative possibilities while reclaiming public space? How do these
categories operate to limit alliances across and within different groups?
How can they be mobilized in the service of forging alliances?

·        How have different groups that are considered disabled publicly
expressed their identity? How are they similar and different from each
other?

·        How do different disciplinary, activist, or artistic
interpretations challenge our understanding of disability and the public?
This year we especially urge participants to form their own panels and
submit their materials as a group whenever possible. We hope that by
encouraging panel proposals, prospective participants will consider creative
ways to interpret and express the conference theme and collaborate on issues
of content, timing and technology to produce more accessible and inclusive
panels. We encourage more accomplished scholars and activists to consider
paneling-up with someone newer in the field in order to increase
opportunities for mentoring and networking. We also encourage diverse panels
that include community members, activists, and scholars from different
geographical and disciplinary locations. International presenters are
especially encouraged to participate. Panels can be submitted in different
formats that include paper presentations, poster sessions, performances,
video/DVD recordings, etc. Recognizing that some participants may have
limited opportunity to form panels, the program committee will consider all
individual proposals and assemble them into panels whenever possible.

The deadline for proposals is December 1, 2005. Participants will be
notified of their acceptance by February 15, 2005. All abstracts will be
fully reviewed and scheduled by the 2005 SDS Program Committee:  Because SDS
cannot accept all of the many excellent submissions it receives, we ask
those whose applications are chosen to commit to registering for the
conference. Cancellations, particularly at the last minute, deny others the
chance to share in their work.  Please submit proposals electronically using
the form on the SDS website, emailing to: Susan Magasi at
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask], and Joy Hammel at
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]

THE FULL CALL FOR PAPERS & SUBMISSION FORMS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE SOCIETY FOR
DISABILITY STUDIES WEBSITE: http://www.uic.edu/orgs/sds/annualmeetings.html.
Additional details on conference registration and lodging will be posted by
the end of October, 2005.

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