The Chris Bell Memorial Scholarship

The Chris Bell Memorial Scholarship honored the life and scholarship of Chris Bell, disability scholar and activist, former Society for Disability Studies president, and co-founder of the SDS People of Color Caucus.

It was funded for 5 years by a generous anonymous donor, this award is no longer available. However, the work it funded and Chris Bell’s work which it celebrated continues to impact us all to see more broadly and more deeply. We list it here to honor that work.

In his article “White Disability Studies” (published in the Disability Studies Reader, editor Lennard Davis) Bell makes a strong case for including issues of race within the field of disability studies. His essay “To Act is to be Committed” discusses the challenges of activism with/in the academy. Chris’s work explored issues of race, disability, AIDS, illness, class and sexuality.

At the time of his death in 2009, he was an ARRT Fellow at the Center for Human Policy, Law and Disability Studies at Syracuse University. The Chris Bell Memorial Scholarship seeks to support people of color and non-white racial minorities doing scholarly work in the field of disability studies with preference for those whose work aligns with Chris’s commitment to intersectionality, identity politics and activism.

The Chris Bell Memorial Scholarship was funded through the generosity of an anonymous donor who shares Bell’s commitment to diversifying both SDS and disability studies.

The Chris Bell Memorial Scholarship has been suspended for the time being.

Previous Chris Bell Memorial Scholarship Recipients:

• 2015: Jina Kim (Honorable Mentions: Washington Opiyo and Akemi Nishida)
• 2014: Nookayaju Bendukurthi (Honorable Mention: Geoffrey Wilson)
• 2013: Haydee Smith (Honorable Mention: Tania Xalitla Ruiz-Chapman)
• 2012: Vandana Chaudhry and Aimi Hamraie (Honorable Mentions: Jagdish Chander and Eloise Tyler)

Tanis Doe Award

The Society for Disability Studies (SDS) Tanis Doe Prize is an award recognizing the best poster at the annual SDS conference. The award includes a cash award and a certificate of recognition. The Tanis Doe award is open to everyone at all levels of education and experience. SDS sponsors an “Honorable Mention” at the student level.

Authors of the posters earning Honorable mention will likewise receive a certificate of recognition. Proposals in all areas of disability studies are welcome as well as submissions premised on this year’s theme.

Posters are considered by a panel of judges appointed by members of the conference program committee; awardees are selected and announced at the business meeting.

The Tanis Doe Prize (for best poster at the annual conference) has been suspended for the time being.

Previous Tanis Doe Prize Awardees

• 2015: Yosung Song (Honorable Mention Poster:
• Bridget Cotner, Jennie Keleher, and Lisa Otomanelli)
• 2014: Augustina Naami
• 2013: Adam Pacton
• 2011: Tammy Morris

The DSQ Prize

The DSQ Prize was awarded annually for the best literary article published in Disability Studies Quarterly (DSQ), the journal of the Society for Disability Studies.  The winner was chosen by the editors of DSQ, recognized at the annual SDS conference, and presented with a certificate and a check for $500.

The DSQ Prize for the best literary article published in an annual year (4 issues) of DSQ has been suspended for the time being.

Previous DSQ Prize Awardees

• 2015 -Sarah Juliet Lauro and Lindsay Waggoner Nordan

“Into the White: Larry Eigner’s Meta-physical Poetics.”

• 2014 – Maren Linett
  “Involuntary Cure: Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier,”
• 2013 – Tom Jordan
  “The Myth of American Ability: Cooper’s Leatherstocking, the Frontier Tradition, and the Making of the American Canon“
• 2012 – Essaka Joshua
  “The Drifting Language of Architectural Accessibility in Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris“
• 2011 – Kristina Chew
  “The Disabled Speech of Asian Americans: Silence and Autism in Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s Father of the Four Passages”
• 2010 – Sarah Birge
  “No Life Lessons Here: Comics, Autism, and Empathetic Scholarship“
• 2009 – Rachel Hile
  “Disability and the Characterization of Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew“