Staying with disability?

8^th disABILITY MUNDUS doctoral school

Université Saint-Louis Brussels, July 3-6, 2022

This year’s doctoral school “Staying with disability?”, comes from the 10^th Annual Conference of ALTER-ESDR’s theme: Rethinking Institutions and de-institutionalisation from a disability perspective, which is linked to disABILITY MUNDUS a group of European academics and universities who are actively engaged in and support scholarly research on disAbility. Our focus, Staying with disability?, is about problematising the complexity of disability, and (re)considering how disability is generative, performative, and system-sensitive. Disability is generative because the questions and practices it generates lead to responses that lead to new questions and practices. With regard to posthuman claims, disability raises questions to what it means to be human, and in particular it raises questions pertaining to the relations between humans and other living being (especially animals) and to technology (especially smart technology and artificial intelligence). Questions we will explore are: What does posthuman notions of disability offer within and outside of institutions? Do we want to stay with disability? How do we want to stay with disability? We invite participants who have completed at least one year of their PhD program and are in the process of researching issues in disability through sociology, philosophy, law, education, nursing, policy, anthropology, linguistics, family studies, design studies, material culture, medicine, technology, and more. Experts from around the world lead the doctoral school through a transdisciplinary approach by questioning issues, practices, and perspectives on disability.

To apply for the Doctoral School, please send a 500-word abstract to prof. dr. Megan Strickfaden at megan.strickfaden@ualberta.ca and prof. dr. Patrick Devlieger at patrick.devlieger@kuleuven.be by April 15, 2022.

The abstract must have the following:

• Title
• Contact information including your home university
• Expression of interest
• Stage of your PhD program
• Summary of your project focus (research question/s, aims, objectives)
• How Staying with Disability fits with your research project

Participation is limited to 18 seats and delivery of the doctoral school is in English. Cost is 80 € for lunches and coffee breaks. Payment to be made after acceptance.

The doctoral school will take place in person at Université Saint-Louis. Should this not be possible then students will be given ample notice and we will pivot to an online course.

Programme

Sunday July 3^rd, 2022

18:00 or 21:00 Introductory Meeting & Welcome Dinner

Hall Ommegang building, 6 rue de l’Ommegang, Bruxelles.

For access information, see: https://www.usaintlouis.be/sl/929.html

Monday July 4^th, 2022

Room OM 420, Ommegang building, 6 rue de l’Ommegang, Bruxelles.

For access information, see: https://www.usaintlouis.be/sl/929.html

9:00  Introductory inputs and exploration of doctoral projects: how can we study Staying with disability. How does the concept of “Staying with?” relate to disability?

9:30 - 10:30 Explorations in Staying with disAbility (course coordination)

10:30 - 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 - 12:30 Small group work (will rotate every half hour)

12:30 - 2:00 Lunch

14:00 - 15:30 Keynote

15:30 - 16:00 Coffee Break

17:00 Discussion

Evening: Dinner (on your own)

Tuesday July 5^th, 2022

 9:00 - 11:00 Activity

11:00 - 12:30 Activity

12:30 - 14:00 Lunch

14:00 - 16:00 Presentations and discussion of morning activity

16:00 - 18:00 Community visit

Evening: Dinner (on your own)

Wednesday July 6^th, 2022

9:30 - 12:30 Coming full circle: connecting doctoral student’s projects with the materials covered.

19:00 Pre-conference event