Submit your event proposal! The Society for Disability Studies is invested in supporting its members. We want to work with members to host events to promote their work, promote the work of others, and help to build community. To those ends, we can supply the infrastructural support to manage online events, including ticketing & registration, attendance monitoring, moderating, Zoom, and accessibility support. If you are a member who is interested in having SDS host your online event, please fill out this form.
Upcoming events
October 2025:
6th October: Work in Progress
Suzanne Stolz and Sara Acevedo
Disruption and strategic engagement: Bridging critical pedagogy and disability activism
12-1:30pm EST
This presentation examines the collaborative autoethnographic work of Dr. Acevedo and Dr. Stolz with pre-service professionals in disability studies courses. The session explores how community partnerships support critical pedagogy and disability activism, with a particular emphasis on the role of conscientization in promoting a culturally affirming understanding of disability. Notably, the discussion highlights the impact of disability studies as critical pedagogy and its significance in advancing disabled people’s pursuit of bodymind autonomy and decision-making power in relation to what Snyder and Mitchell (2006) call “the controlling professions.”
45 min presentation with 30-min Q&A
Register at Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/st-7A7IaQ328y09HlOXI6w
14th October: Author Talks
Access Vernaculars: SDS Author Conversation with Cassandra Hartblay
12-1:30pm EST
Join Cassandra Hartblay, author of new book ACCESS VERNACULARS (Cornell University Press), with discussants Raquel Velho and Xenia Cherkaev, for a discussion of a global perspective on critical access studies.
Access Vernaculars explores moments when accessible design fails. Observing how both disabled and nondisabled people in Russia recognize and point out poorly executed accessible design in built environments, ethnographer Cassandra Hartblay traces how disabled people in one Russian city narrate experiences of pervasive inaccess, and interprets popular images of failed accessibility as critiques of the Russian state and ablenationalism. In the process, Hartblay asks how disability advocacy movements proceed when ablenationalism co-opts accessibility and calls for a critical global disability studies that pushes back against Euro-American hegemony.
Through the stories disabled people tell about access and inaccess, this book examines local terminology used by those with mobility impairments to describe the built environment—a unique lexicon combining translated terms from global disability advocacy with Russophone words inherited from generations of political advocacy. These ethnographic accounts demonstrate the ways vocabularies of disability access spread in friction, taking on dynamic and unexpected meanings in transnational sociopolitical contexts. Access Vernaculars presents a global perspective on the intersection of critical disability studies and sociocultural anthropology.
This event will include a 25 minute author talk, 10 minute response from each discussant, a 5 minute break, followed by a 25 minute q&a.
Register at Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/3kLQf1V9S723cHAKW75z5w
27th October: Mentoring Conversations
Preparing Personal Statements: Nicole Schroeder and Matthew Wolf-Meyer
5-6:15pm EST
Register at Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ZrIwAg_NTpC3cAbIZCFThg
November 2025:
3rd November: Work in Progress
Dan Goodley
Disability’s exposition of the academy: A composite narrative of belonging, community capacity and mutuality
12-1:30pm EST
Dan Goodley and Rebecca Lawthom, iHuman, School of Education, University of Sheffield
In this work in progress paper we reflect on our positions as senior/old academics in the university, our attempts to support disabled researcher colleagues and consider disability’s exposition of the academy. We tell the story of Florence; a composite character grappling with the challenges of research leadership and disability’s promise of driving change in the university. We interrogate the possibilities and challenges found in Florence’s story that embody concepts of belonging, community capacity and mutuality that we find to be helpful ideas for building an inclusive research culture. We acknowledge that we are the university and we can collectively work together to make sure that disabled researchers are a central part of our communities. This paper develops ideas that we have been developing with colleagues relating to depathologising the university (Goodley, 2024; Goodley et al, 2025)
Register at Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ly2UoQHYQ-Gm4Bt-0r-Gcg
11th November: Author Talks
Amanda Apgar
1-2:30pm EST
Join Amanda Apgar, author of The Disabled Child, Memoirs of a Normal Future, with Amy Lutz, Vice President of the National Council for Severe Autism, Lindsay Crain, Head of Content and Community at Undivided.io, and Tammy Nyden, associate professor of philosophy at Grinnell College and a co-creator and co-director of Mothers on the Frontline, for a discussion on raising children with disabilities, parent caregivers, and the exclusions within disability studies.
Register at Zoom Link:https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/nLKemO_ATha–kN8MqMYGQ
19th November: Disability Studies Roundtables
Joe Stramondo & Guests
12-1:30pm EST
Details Forthcoming
Register at Zoom Link:https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Nydu8f1FTD60qYNBmy8q5w
24th November: Mentoring Conversations
Conference Presentations: Amanda Apgar and Ioana Cerasella Chis
12-1:30pm EST
Register at Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/–oJ0CDiTK6fxmkg1DvcnQ
December 2025:
1st December: Work in Progress
Remi Yergeau
12-1:30pm EST
Details Forthcoming
Register at Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/iTHqGQZpSreJLkBop2V_wA
9th December: Author Talks
David Serlin & Michele Friedner
12-1:30pm EST
Join David Serlin, author of Window Shopping with Helen Keller: Architecture and Disability in Modern Culture (University of Chicago Press, 2025) for a discussion of his new book, which explores the sensorial and experiential worlds of disabled people like Keller and through the medium of architecture, decades before the disability rights movement of the late 1960s standardized now-familiar terms like “access” and “accommodation.”
Michele Friedner’s details forthcoming
Register at Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89917238504
January 2026:
5th January: Molly Joyce
Category of event: Work in Progress
13th January: Angela Frederick with Sunaura Taylor and Julia Watts Belser
Category of event: Author Talks
21st January: Kavana Ramaswamy
Category of event: Disability Studies Roundtables
26th January: Book Review Writing (Kara and Kim)
Category of event: Mentoring Conversations
February 2026:
2nd February: Stuart Murray
Category of event: Work in Progress
10th February: Charles Bell with Alysse Loomis
Category of event: Author Talks
18th February: Mimi Khuc, Ly Xīnzhèn
Category of event: Disability Studies Roundtables
23rd February: Postdoc Applications: Ioana Cerasella Chis
Category of event: Mentoring Conversations
March 2026:
2nd March: Deborah Lefkowitz
Category of event: Work in Progress
10th March: E. Mara Green
Category of event: Author Talks
18th March: Lennard Davis, Leon Hilton & AJ Jones
Category of event: Disability Studies Roundtables
23rd March: Academic CVs
Category of event: Mentoring Conversations
Past events
30th & 31st May 2025
This May 30th-31st, the Society for Disability Studies is hosting a “non-conference,” two days of online events. The non-conference is organized around two recent books, Faye Ginsburg & Rayna Rapp’s Disability Worlds and Robert Chapman’s Empire of Normality. Each day will start with a book talk from the author, followed by an “author-meets-readers” panel. The readers for Disability Worlds are: Denielle Elliott (York University), Bess Williamson (), Christine Sargent (University of Colorado, Denver), Kim Fernandes (University of Toronto), and Toni Nieminen (University of Helsinki); the readers for Empire of Normality are Richard Grinker (George Washington University), Elizabeth Fein (Duquesne University), Rosalyn Malcolm (Durham University), Emily Lim Rogers (Duke University), and Andrew Brown (University of Washington). All presentations will be followed by a Q&A period with the audience.
Access files will be provided prior to the events. Please send any access requests to admin@disstudies.org.
Program for the two days, displayed on Canva.
May 30, 9-10:30 Eastern
Robert Chapman’s Empire of Normality, Book Talk
May 30, 10:30-12 Eastern
Robert Chapman’s Empire of Normality, Author-Meets-Readers
May 31, 9-10:30 Eastern
Faye Ginsburg & Rayna Rapp’s Disability Worlds, Book Talk
May 31, 10:30-12 Eastern
Faye Ginsburg & Rayna Rapp’s Disability Worlds, Author-Meets-Readers
November 2024 – General Members’ Meeting
Please join us this November 1 from 12-1:30 EST for our annual General Membership Meeting. There will be short presentations from the Society for Disability Study’s President and Treasurer, the editors of Disability Studies Quarterly, and the chairs of each of our standing committees, followed by a Q&A session. More information about the GMM was sent to members by email and posted on Patreon.
October 2024 – Where’s the Accessibility in Open Access?
Please join us this October 30th from 12-1:30 Eastern for a discussion about Open Access publishing, the role of accessibility in scholarly publishing, the importance of scholarly societies in supporting journals, how concerns with equity inform Open Access, and the present and future of Disability Studies Quarterly. Our panel discussion will include current DSQ editor Jeff Brune, Ohio State University librarian Johanna Meetz, Marcel LaFlamme from PLOS, and Tanya Titchkosky, author of The Question of Access. Please send any accessibility needs to our administrative assistant. A recording and transcripts will be available to SDS members after the event.
September 2024 – Back to School Celebration with Margaret Price
Please join us this September 3rd from 12-1:30 EDT for our Back to School celebration. We’ll have a discussion of Margaret Price’s Crip Spacetime: Access, Failure, and Accountability in Academic Life (Duke UP 2024). Panelists Benjamin Reiss, Aparna Nair, and Helen Rottier will each discuss the book and its implications for disability studies, Margaret will provide a response, and we’ll have an open discussion of the book. Prepare for the event by reading the introduction (or the whole book!) at https://www.dukeupress.edu/crip-spacetime. SDS members are welcome and will have access to a recording and transcript of the event.
August 2024 – Discussion of the academic job market with Jonathan Flowers and Matthew Wolf-Meyer
On Friday, 23rd August 2024 11-12:30 PST, join members of SDS’s board—Johnathan Flowers and Matthew Wolf-Meyer—for a discussion of the academic job market. How can you prepare yourself? What should you expect? Are there ways to stay positive through an arduous and often oblique process? Johnathan and Matthew will discuss their experiences as job seekers and members of hiring committees, and will answer your questions! Free for SDS members, who will also have access to a recording and transcripts.
January 2024 – Affinity Groups Schedule
On Friday, 12th January and Saturday, 13th January 2024, SDS will be hosting a series of affinity groups for members and non-members to help us develop plans for the future of the organization. We’d love to see you participate!
Friday [Zoom links removed after the events]:
International/Non-Western (8am PST/ 7pm CET – 90 minutes) CARTe- Requested; ASL Translation-
LGBTQAI+ (10am PST/7pm CET – 90 minutes) CARTe- Requested; ASL Translation-
BIPOC (12pm Pacific/9pm CET – 90 minutes) CARTe- Requested; ASL Translation-
Saturday [Zoom links removed after the events]:
Artists, Community Scholars, Activists (8am Pacific/5pmCET – 90 minutes) CARTe- Requested; ASL Translation-
Family members of disabled individuals (10am Pacific/7pm CET – 90 minutes) CARTe- Requested; ASL Translation-
Students (12pm Pacific/9pm CET – 90 minutes) CARTe- Requested; ASL Translation-