Ableism in Academia: Theorising Experiences of Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses in Higher Education – Book Symposium
- Gregor Wolbring, University of Calgary, Canada
- Nicole Brown, UCL Institute of Education
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Rather than embracing difference as a reflection of wider society, academic ecosystems seek to normalise and homogenise ways of working and of being a researcher. As a consequence, ableism in academia is endemic. However, to date no attempt has been made to theorise experiences of ableism in academia.
Ableism in Academia edited by Nicole Brown and Jennifer Leigh and published by UCL Press on 5 October, provides an interdisciplinary outlook on ableism that has been missing. Through reporting research data and exploring personal experiences, the contributors theorise and conceptualise what it means to be/work outside the stereotypical norm. The volume brings together a range of perspectives, including feminism, post-structuralism, such as Derridean and Foucauldian theory, crip theory and disability theory, and draw on the width and breadth of a number of related disciplines. Contributors use technicism, leadership, social justice theories and theories of embodiment to raise awareness and increase understanding of the marginalised; that is those academics who are not perfect. These theories are placed in the context of neoliberal academia, which is distant from the privileged and romanticised versions that exist in the public and internalised imaginations of academics, and are used to interrogate aspects of identity, aspects of how disability is performed, and to argue that ableism is not just a disability issue.
This timely collection of chapters will be of interest to researchers in Disability Studies, Higher Education Studies and Sociology, and to those researching the relationship between theory and personal experience across the Social Sciences.
Event Materials
This event is now archived and we are pleased to provide the following event media and assets, along with the original event overview.
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Gregor Wolbring is Tenured Associate Professor at the University of Calgary (Canada), Cumming School of Medicine, Community Health Sciences, Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies. He has widely published (105 peer-reviewed journal articles and more than 40 book chapters). He describes himself as an ability expectation and ableism studies (short ability studies), disability studies, science and technology studies and sustainability scholar. He received four undergraduate research teaching awards, one graduate supervision award, the Tanis Doe award of the Canadian Disability Studies Association (2017 and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal awarded in the year 2013 by the government of Canada in recognition of the benefit of his academic work to the greater community (2013). More about him here.
Dr Nicole Brown is a Lecturer in Education at UCL Institute of Education and Director of Social Research & Practice and Education Ltd. Nicole gained her PhD in Sociology at the University of Kent for her research into the construction of academic identity under the influence of fibromyalgia. In addition to Ableism in Academia: Theorising Experiences of Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses in Higher Education, she has edited Lived Experiences of Ableism in Academia: Strategies for Inclusion in Higher Education (to be published in Spring 2021) and, co-authored Embodied Inquiry: Research Methods. Nicole is currently authoring How to Make the Most of Your Research Journal.
Nicole’s research interests relate to physical and material representations and metaphors, the generation of knowledge and, more generally, research methods and approaches to explore identity and body work, as well as to advance learning and teaching within higher education. She tweets as @ncjbrown, @FibroIdentity and @AbleismAcademia
