Society for Disability Studies

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The Society for Disability Studies is pleased to announce a
call for proposals for its 22nd annual conference.

Dates: June 2-5, 2010

Host: Institute on Disabilities, Temple University

Location: Howard Gittis Student Center, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Submission Forms: All proposals must use the SDS CFP submission form available at the 2010 SDS conference site

Proposal Deadline: Midnight EST, December 15, 2009

THEME: DISABILITY IN THE GEO-POLITICAL IMAGINATION

The development of global studies has increasingly called for a cross-cultural and comparative approach to questions of marginalization, stigma, diaspora and resettlement, labor and exploitation, climate change, and the world-ranging production of impairment and disability from violence, inhumane treatment, crumbling infrastructure, and environmental degradation. A significant amount of scholarship also examines new resistance cultures and the galvanization of global networks as members of diverse disability communities try to navigate productive collaborations across newly wired cybernetic systems and claim the possibilities offered by globalization. New opportunities and new problems abound around forging transnational communities, increased mobility, health and charity tourism, the implementation of universal rights, increased transparency of states and organizations, better community-based rehabilitation, and more varied work possibilities.

This year’s Society for Disability Studies conference features the theme “Disability in the Geo-Political Imagination” to spur ongoing efforts in interdisciplinary analyses. Such a theme arrives at a timely moment in the wake of the signing of the United Nations Charter on the Rights of People with Disabilities by leaders in 140 nations (including, most recently and somewhat belatedly, the United States). As a result of the emergence and ratification of this convention, disability has become a more visible topic within the public sphere. Nations, perhaps including the United States, that previously undervalued disabled populations now contend with what it means to be truly inclusive. Likewise, disability-advocacy organizations now seek to make further claims upon the state as a guarantor of rights and liberties. This SDS conference theme includes proactive responses and solutions to the critique that disabled populations—particularly those which are disproportionately poor and people of color—are ill represented, under-analyzed, and under-theorized, particularly in the context of global studies. As the local and global may be seen as intertwined and haunting each other, so can questions of disability, race, class, and gender.

Disability studies explores the distance that exists between popular representations of disability as tragic embodiment, and politically informed disability cultures that define themselves against such devaluing views. Authors of panel and paper proposals will ideally feature new ways of conceptualizing people who experience disability as social actors connected or disconnected on a global scale. In particular, the SDS Program Committee seeks entries from those areas of inquiry that resist, revise, and re-imagine contemporary understandings of human differences and embodiment such as critical race studies, feminist/womanist studies, class-based analyses, queer studies, trans-gender studies, and other critical perspectives linked to social justice initiatives.

While proposals for any topic are always welcome at SDS, we offer a suggested theme each year. This year’s theme encourages submissions that attend to local conditions, including those in our host city of Philadelphia, within a global context and to cultures of empowerment and resistance within the complexity of global exploitation and opportunities.

Possible topic questions may include, but are not limited to:

• What is the relationship between disability studies and other critical studies of experience—cultural studies, critical race studies, gender, feminist, and women's studies, queer studies, trans-gender studies, subaltern studies—that critique social norms of embodiment, capacity, and aesthetic?
• How do we analyze and theorize around international disability experiences? How do we bridge the disjuncture between the global and the local?
• What is the role of disability in critical resistance to privatization, the penetration of neoliberal thinking and practice, the retrenchment of social/economic benefits, the ideas/practices of social entrepreneurship, all both nationally and internationally?
• What are the effects and affects of neo-liberalism on disability rights, service provision, policy, art, culture, and politics?
• How do transnational disability movements develop and what is their relationship to national borders?
• What is the role of disability in the public imagination as constituted through and within representation in media?
• What infrastructure best supports the production of new interventions and innovations in the realm of community-based rehabilitation and other services, new cloistered living schemes, and disability programming as a result of the UN convention?
• What is the relationship between new forms of labor and disability, informal and formal economies, and how they intersect with disability?
• What critical analysis is needed from disability perspectives on the development of new technology?
• What are the impacts of declarations of the suspension of social liberties in the context of arguments around a "state of exception" with respect to social justice for disabled populations?

PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS

The board of the Society for Disability Studies recognizes the unfortunate scheduling conflict of this year's annual conference with that of the Canadian Disability Studies Association. In keeping with this year's theme of the "Geo-Political Imagination," and in order to encourage continuing productive exchange of knowledge across our borders, both groups are making all efforts to adopt innovative strategies for connecting the events virtually through live interactive video and special programming. Look for an addendum to this CFP with the details of these opportunities as soon as arrangements are finalized.

What follows below in this document is a description of submission requirements. You must submit your proposal online by using the CFP submission form link at the SDS web site. If this is a problem please contact the SDS Executive Office.

Use the instructions below to plan and organize your proposal material before beginning your submission process.

SDS welcomes proposals in the following formats. All submissions will be peer-reviewed.

Individual Papers:

People are encouraged to submit proposals for individual papers and/or presentations.

Presenters: Use the online presenter section to provide full contact information only for those authors who will attend the conference.

Abstract: Provide a title, author(s) and an abstract of 200 words for possible publication.

Logistics:

• In general, assume a 15 minutes time limit per paper. If you are requesting a longer format, be sure to specify and explain why.
• In the case of multiple authors, please supply the names of all the authors and indicate which authors will be in attendance at SDS.
• Any particular set-up requests (other than audio/visual needs). A specific field is provided for AV requests.
• In the field provided for the purpose, please also supply 3 key words or phrases for topical identification of your presentation to assist us in placing your paper in an appropriate session.

Organized Paper Sessions:

Sessions of 4 to 5, usually 15 minute paper presentations are encouraged around a central topic, theme, or approach. Such proposals should assume a total length of no more than 90 minutes, including any time you allocate for introductions, responses, discussion, and questions.

Presenters: Use the online presenter section to provide full contact information only for those participants who will attend the conference.

Abstract: For possible publication, provide a session title and a session abstract of no more than 300 words. Provide a title, author(s), and an abstract of 200 words for each individual presentation. Include the title of the panel in the appropriate field provided for the purpose.

Logistics:

• Describe how the time for the presenters will be allocated.
• Please include names and contact information of all participants or authors of papers along with their designated roles as chair, introduction, conclusion, or discussant.
• Any particular set-up requests (other than audio/visual needs). A specific field is provided for AV requests.

Discussion Panels:

Sessions of 4 to 6 panelists, each with no more than 10 minutes to initiate discussion are encouraged around a central topic, theme, or approach. Such proposals should aim for a total length of no more than 90 minutes, including time for introductions, responses, discussion, and questions.

Presenters: Please include names and contact information of all panelists in the presenter section of the submission form.

Abstract: For possible publication, provide a title, panelists, and an overall abstract of no more than 500 words.

Logistics:

• Describe how the time will be allocated.
• Please include names of all participants along with their designated roles as chair, introduction, conclusion, panelist, discussant, etc.
• Any particular set-up requests (other than audio/visual needs). A specific field is provided for AV requests.

Display/Poster Session:

There will be a display/poster session at which individuals or teams will be provided a common space to present a visual/auditory/other media display of research or other projects. Creators should plan on being in attendance at the poster session in order to amplify the display, contextualize its contents, and interact with attendees. Your proposal should focus on the content of your work but also describe the nature of the display. Displays will occur in a quiet room where people can talk but please do also describe how you will generally meet access needs and if you require any particular set-up or disability accommodation in the context of a display. SDS proudly awards the Tanis Doe Award for the best poster/display.

Presenters: Please list only the presenter(s) who will attend SDS in the presenters’ section of the online submission form. Meeting presenters will receive technical information on logistics with proposal acceptances.

Abstract: Provide a title, author(s), and an abstract of 300 to 500 words for possible publication.

Logistics:

• Please include names of all display creators along with their designated roles.
• • Please describe your ideal space/furniture/equipment and any other particular set-up requests (other than audio/visual needs). A specific field is provided for AV requests. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to meet all set-up requests.

Artistic/Performance/Film Events:

SDS encourages submissions of an artistic or performance nature—everything from gallery showings of visual arts to musical concerts to theatrical, literary, and comedy performances to dance/movement pieces, and film. These may be proposed by individuals and/or groups, and may or may not fit into the standard time formats specified for other proposals. SDS particularly encourages film as this year’s conference site includes a dedicated movie theater.

Presenters: Use the presenter section of the online submission form to include only those people who will attend SDS to present the work.

Abstract: For possible publication, provide a title, names, and a 300-500 word written abstract describing your overall theme and presentation.

Additional Materials: In addition please provide: a) for poets and other writers, up to ten poems or ten pages (approximately 2,500 words) of work; b) for performers, a ten minute or shorter audio or video clip; c) for visual artists, ten images of your work; d) for other formats/media, please send samples as appropriate. The committee may request additional information or materials.

If possible, please submit this work electronically by including it in the abstract section of the online submission form or to Pratik Patel via e-mail. For video clips, a link to an online video is preferred. We cannot return any of the materials we receive.

Logistics:

• Describe your time/space/equipment needs.
• Describe your set up and any particular logistical requirements.
• Include the names and contact information of all creators and their role(s).
• For films the Program Committee encourages some introduction/discussion time for a first showing. We may want to also screen your film multiple times after the first event. Please indicate if you are willing to allow multiple screenings.

Peer Reviewed Other Formats:

We encourage proposals with non-traditional formats from a mealtime roundtable to a guided tour of some location in Philadelphia. If you propose a 90-minute session to run concurrent with regular sessions, it should involve the work of at least 3 people, all of whom must fill out the presenters’ section, register and attend the meetings. One-hour slots during mealtimes and evening sessions of varying lengths are also possibilities with fewer or more presenters.

Presenters: Use the presenter section of the online submission form to include only those people who will attend SDS to present the work.

Abstract: For possible publication, please provide a title, names, and a detailed description of the content and format envisioned in an abstract of 300 to 500 words.

Logistics:

• Describe your time/space/equipment needs.
• Describe your set up and any particular logistical requirements.
• Include the names and contact information of all creators and their role(s).
• Do you have a particular expected audience?
• You may submit any other materials to help describe your concept. We encourage you to email the conference chairs if you want to discuss any unusual format possibilities.

All Non-Peer Reviewed Meetings/Events/Exhibits:

Various ad hoc and organized non-profit groups may wish to have business, organizational, or informational meetings or some other kind of non-peer reviewed event or exhibit space at the meetings. These may be SDS committee or caucus meetings or meetings of other kinds. Since accommodations for meetings are important but costly, we want to encourage everyone to plan as far ahead as possible. Where appropriate, all SDS committees should take advantage of the opportunity to hold meetings to engage with interested SDS members. These SDS meetings will take precedence over visiting groups. We cannot guarantee that all specific requests can be met. Non-SDS requests may be assessed a share of cost for space and access arrangements.

For all non peer-reviewed submissions, please supply the following information using the submission form.

Presenters: List the contact people who will attend SDS, all of whom must register for the conference.

Abstract: For possible publication to announce the event, please provide a title, name of the group, its relationship to SDS, and its purpose in up to 200 words

Logistics:

• Describe the overall type of meeting/event/space requested.
• Describe the details of space/time/set up requested, and number of people expected.
• Provide full contact information for the requesting person and any other participants and their designated roles.

For-profit exhibitors should contact the SDS office directly rather than respond to this CFP. People with books or other publications to exhibit should also contact the office.

OVERALL CONSIDERATIONS

Multiple Roles: People may submit more than one proposal to SDS. However, in general each person will only have one major presentation slot at the meetings, such as first author on a paper, and one other role, such as being a discussant or giving a performance.

Single Institutions: People may coordinate sessions across any group of participants. However, the meetings are a valuable and unique physical opportunity for us to engage with people from other places and institutions. We encourage and may give preference to sessions that cross these geographic boundaries.

Universal Design/Access: Accessibility is central to the philosophy of SDS. When conceptualizing your event, please consider accessibility from the beginning as an organic part of your work, not as an added feature at the end. This is true for all events, including meetings. Planners should explore ways to make physical, sensory, and intellectual access a fundamental part of their presentation. In particular, presenters should plan their delivery to accommodate open captioning, ASL interpretation, low vision, audio description, etc. We will send out guidelines and specific requirements and suggestions with proposal acceptances. However, proposals that demonstrate a consciousness of universal design and access principals will receive preference in the peer-review process. If you have questions about making your presentation accessible, please contact the Program Co-chairs through Devva Kasnitz or Pratik Patel at the Executive Office.

IMPORTANT DATES

• Midnight EST, December 15, 2009: Proposals are due. Instructions for submitting proposals and other information about the process (including an electronic submission form) are available on the SDS website at the 2010 SDS conference site.
• February 1, 2010: Proposal Acceptances should be announced by this date. Proposals will be peer reviewed by the conference Program Committee.
• February 20, 2010: Attendance confirmation is due.
• March 15, 2010: Early Bird Registration will end
• April 25, 2010: Presenters’ registrations fees are due by to reserve allocated program time.
• May 1, 2010: Drafts/outlines/key words of accepted presentations due via e-mail in order to facilitate ASL interpretation and open captioning.

Questions about the application process or other administrative matters may be directed to the SDS Executive Office.

Overall questions can be directed to any of the three Program Committee Co-Chairs:

David Mitchell, Temple University
Devva Kasnitz, University of California, Berkeley

We look forward to your submissions!