Past Call for Papers

Intersectional Approaches to Disability and Race

Flipped webinar: 9 July 2021

*** Submissions are closed now ***

<< Blog posts are online on 1 July, you can find the programme here >>

Recent times have emphasised again how society is marked by the interconnectedness of racism and ableism. Black and brown disabled and non-disabled people and white disabled and non-disabled people face different barriers and norms and have different disability and race experiences and expressions in terms of, for instance, social inequalities, time, social relations, ideology, everyday experiences, space, institutions, fiction, story telling, and performativity. While the intersectional exploration of disability and race is a small but growing area of study, this intersection has received insufficient attention in disability studies, in race studies as well as in intersectionality studies. Intersectional knowledge construction around the interrelatedness of race and disability and racism and ableism, and which rejects the medical or deficiency model of disability, is urgent.

The Intersectional Disability and Neurodiversity Reading Groups seek to contribute to this growing body of work by organising the flipped webinar Intersectional Approaches to Disability and Race (see below for an explanation of how a flipped webinar works). We invite scholars, postgraduate researchers, community activists and others to present on the junction of disability and ableism and race and racism, as well as their interrelatedness with other social categories.

Abstracts can be in any of the following or other topics:

Positionality: disability and race critical reflexivity
Critical race theory, disability and art
Disability and race in unconscious bias
Access, expectations and detention in education
The role of neurodiversity in racial profiling and the prison industrial complex
Representations and the (traditional and online) media
Whiteness, ableism and reproductive rights
‘British’ norms, white hegemony and independent living
Queer, crip and decolonial subjectivities
Islamophobia, Prevent and the dis/abled bodymind
Race, interdependence and cultures of care
The charity model of disability in policy and international development
Disabled refugees and the ‘bona fide migrant’
Intersectional invisibilisation and marginalisation in racial justice and disability justice movements
Racialised heteronormativity in thinking about disabled families
Abled whiteness in making sense of ageing
Race and disability outside the limits of the LGBTQIA+ imagination
Racialised norms, linguistic barriers and cultural inaccessibility
Feminist leadership: organising different disability and race futures
The scrounger narrative: race, disability and poverty
White and abled norms in thinking about social change
Emerging methodologies in disability and race research
Experiencing and resisting ableism and racism in the pandemic
Not counting: the statistics of the intersectional absence of disability and race
Nothing about us, without us: empowerment from the racialised disabled and disabled racialised margins
Black Lives Matter, disability and community
Intersectional understandings of hate crime
Fantasising about disability and race in arts, comics and performances

This is a neurodivergent-led and disabled-led webinar, and neurodivergent and disabled graduate students and scholars, activists and community-members, as well as others presenting from marginalised perspectives, are particularly encouraged to submit an abstract.

How does a ‘flipped webinar’ work?

The traditional format of a webinar is that a few people present their work through a video-platform – often with powerpoint slides. Instead, in a ‘flipped webinar’ each participant submits a short video or written blog post some time before the webinar (find the guidelines and the timeline below). These video and written blog posts will be uploaded online. Panellists as well as the audience will have time to read and watch the blog posts before the webinar.

At the start of the webinar, the facilitator will read the prepared summary of the main argument of the blog posts. The rest of the webinar will be dedicated to a facilitated conversation: panellists can comment on and discuss each other’s blog posts, ask each other questions, as well as respond to questions from the audience.

How does the submission process work?

This webinar has a phased submission process. There are two ways to do this:

Those who would like to receive some support can submit an abstract-in-progress first, before they submit their actual abstract. They can also submit a blog-post-in-progress first, before they submit their actual blog post. The organising team can discuss these works-in-progress and provide comments for improvement.
Those who feel comfortable submitting a completed abstract and blog post, can do so at the respective final deadline dates.

Timeline

The timeline of the submission-process consists of four phases, with the following dates (all 11.59pm UK time):

1 February 2021: Deadline abstracts-in-progress (optional)
- 8 February 2021: The organising team returns comments on the abstracts-in-progress
1 March 2021: Deadline abstracts
- 15 March 2021: Decision abstracts
3 May 2021: Submission blog-posts-in-progress (optional)
- 17 May 2021: The organising team returns comments on the blog-posts-in-progress
21 June 2021: Submission final blog posts
1 July 2021: Blog posts are uploaded
- 1-8 July: Reading blog posts by panellists (and others)
9 July 2021: Webinar

Guidelines abstracts-in-progress and abstracts

Information to include in your submission:
- Name and email address
- Blog post title
- Abstract
- Presentation type: written or video blog post
- Department & university, organisation and/or community
- Time zone
- Access needs
- Submission blog-post-in-progress?: yes / no

Abstract (pick one format):
- Written length: 150-200 words
- Spoken length: 2-3min
Point of attention:
- Submissions do not rely on the medical or deficiency model of disability
- Submissions use language and terms (e.g. identify-first or person-first language) appropriate to the context
Deadlines:
- Abstracts-in-progress: 1 February 2021, 11.59pm UK time
- Final submission abstract: 1 March 2021, 11.59pm UK time
Email your submission to: this option is closed now

Guidelines video and written blog-posts-in-progress and blog posts

Blog post length (pick one):
- Written blog post: 1000-1500wds
- Video blog post: 9-12min
Summary of the argument: 50-75 words (in addition to the blog post)
Format: Arial 12
Referencing: use URLs [for example, see Post-Pandemic University]
Point of attention:
- Submissions do not rely on the medical or deficiency model of disability
- Submissions use language and terms (e.g. identify-first or person-first language) appropriate to the context
Email your submission to: this option is closed now

Further information

Organisation: organising team Intersectional Disability & Neurodiversity Reading Groups

Anchor 1: past calls