Ableism in Academia: Theorising Experiences of Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses in HE

5 November 2020, CGHE webinar
Gregor Wolbring, University of Calgary, Canada
Nicole Brown, UCL Institute of Education
Kirstein Rummery, University of Stirling

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.

[reyfairburn]

I'm only in my first year of university and I'm already having to fight against ableism. I really resonate with the discussion around disclosure and how the pressure shouldn't be all on us to do the work. And yet that's exactly why I'm majoring in what I am, so that I can do research and work in the areas needed for our community, from the perspective of a disabled person.

[mehnazhossain]

I am going to use people with diverse abilities from now on.

[julieeshlemanassistivetech]

Really interesting discussion on responsibility for change in this space. Feels simultaneously as though quite a lot of progress has been made but also that the distance still to travel to be true equality is still great.

Also interesting chat about disclosure of disability - the fact that so few people actually disclose any disability or need for support points to some systemic issues associated with how resources are allocated (if at all), perception or treatment of people with various needs, and how people behave toward someone they feel is getting 'special treatment' with supports for an invisible disability... hopefully we are moving toward a space when diversity is not hierarchical, it is simply known to be intersectional, interdependent, and a newly understood norm than the absence of support needs.