Events and Seminars

Here are examples of events organised or supported by the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds. These events reflect the breadth of disability studies scholarship, activism, policy engagement, and interdisciplinary dialogue associated with CDS.

The list includes selected talks, seminars, and discussions involving CDS members, visiting scholars, activists, practitioners, and collaborators. It is not exhaustive, but offers an overview of the kinds of intellectual and public conversations that CDS has helped to convene and sustain.

Please read below to explore examples of CDS events, including the title of each talk, presenter details, and abstracts where available:

Disconnected Technology: Rehabilitative Readings of Wheelchairs and Wheelchair Use through the Twentieth Century

Presenter: Professor Nick Watson, University of Glasgow

Abstract:
For much of the twentieth century, wheelchairs were either intentionally or unwittingly ignored. They were not included in the design of buildings, cars, transport systems, or other built environments. When noticed, they were often vilified, treated as ominous, or viewed with trepidation, despite the latent potential of wheelchair use for many people. This paper explored how a technology that, at the beginning of the twentieth century, intersected the divide between transport for the wealthy and medical apparatus for injured, sick, and disabled people became so vilified. Drawing on the work of Ludwick Fleck, Professor Nick Watson analysed the drive towards normalcy and the embedded association between being normal and walking. The paper examined two thought collectives: one that positioned walking as the core aim of rehabilitation, and another that challenged the prevailing assumption that wheelchair use was synonymous with dependency. It considered tensions surrounding the wheelchair and its use, including the medicalisation and politicisation of wheelchairs and wheelchair users.

 

Ability Capitalism: Disabling legalities of market relations

Presenter: Clare Williams, University of Birmingham

Abstract:
This talk outlined the theory of ability capitalism: law’s constitutive role in market constructions of disability. Drawing from Marta Russell’s work on disability as a market technology of power, the talk examined how law structures market relations and helps produce disability‐exclusionary markets that anticipate “standard” actors while disabling those who cannot align with this standard. Clare Williams identified four key processes, including legal predistribution, legal coding, the revealing of “standard” assumptions while concealing the non‐standard, and law’s deference to underlying efficiency calculations and economic analyses. Although developed in the context of UK labour markets, the talk also considered how ability capitalism might be extended to housing and debt markets. It concluded by suggesting that challenging disability oppression in markets may require not only more or stronger rights, but also a reappraisal of law’s constitutive role in the commodification of labour, land, and money.

 

‘I’m a seed that’s been kept in a dark hole for so long and it’s now time for it to become a tree!’: Cultivating counter‐narratives of disability through the arts

Presenter: Dr Gareth M. Thomas, Cardiff School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University

Abstract:
Despite policies designed to improve the lives of adults with learning disabilities, they remain at the margins of UK society and are often represented as living lives of isolation, tragedy, and exclusion. This talk discussed early findings from an ethnographic study conducted across multiple sites, including a theatre company and dance and drag groups run by, with, and for people with learning disabilities. Drawing on this data, Dr Gareth M. Thomas explored how learning‐disabled adults confront dominant oppressive narratives and articulate their lives in more affirmative terms. Through the arts, the talk showed how learning‐disabled adults can resist assumptions of vulnerability, passivity, and isolation, while foregrounding creativity, resistance, vigour, and interdependence. The talk concluded by considering how adults with learning disabilities cultivate positive, public accounts of their lives that re‐story what it means to live with disability.

 

‘The liberation torch (…) for disabled people’: Rethinking the work of Paul Hunt

Presenters: Judy Hunt, activist, and Luke Beesley, University of Brighton

Abstract:
The editors of Paul Hunt’s newly published journal and collected works discussed the implications of these writings and offered new interpretations of Hunt’s work and life.

 

New Materialism: Opening New Lines of Inquiry within Disability Studies

Presenter: Dr Michael Feely, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin

Abstract:
This seminar presented a new‐materialist, specifically Deleuzian, theoretical framework for thinking differently and creatively about the capacities of bodies labelled as impaired. Rather than ascribing fixed identities or inherent characteristics to bodies, this approach understands bodies as existing within specific material‐discursive contexts that enable some capacities while restricting others. Dr Michael Feely used the example of the reproductive capacities of male Down syndrome bodies to show how capacities are produced through biological, technological, economic, legislative, and attitudinal forces. The seminar suggested that many men with Down syndrome could become fathers if society wanted to allow this, and concluded by considering how new‐materialist ideas might open new lines of inquiry within Disability Studies and inform new forms of disability activism.

 

Inequalities, Social Care and Disabled People: Does a Public Health Perspective Have Anything Useful to Add?

Presenter: Professor Chris Hatton, Professor of Public Health and Disability, Faculty of Health and Medicine, University of Lancaster

Abstract:
This seminar discussed contemporary public health perspectives within the context of health inequalities, social care, and disabled people. It considered discriminatory assumptions and operations within contemporary visions of public health, the focus on social determinants in understanding health inequalities, notions of risk within public health and social care, and the role of self‐directed support in addressing health inequalities. Professor Chris Hatton also examined effective strategies for public health policy change, including approaches focused on inclusive growth. The seminar considered the role of public health specialists within local authorities, rather than health services, and explored the implications for disabled people’s participation and inclusion within local communities.

 

Overcoming disabling barriers to justice and support after sexual violence

Presenters: Dr Andrea Hollomotz, University of Leeds; Dr Leah Burch, Liverpool Hope University; and Ruth Bashall, Stay Safe East

Abstract:
The speakers presented their research with disabled victim‐survivors of sexual violence. The talk explored the barriers disabled people face in accessing support after sexual violence and considered suggestions for increasing the accessibility of victim support services and the criminal justice system.

 

Doing Inclusive Education Differently

Presenter: Associate Professor Tim Corcoran, Deakin University

Abstract:
For educators pursuing equitable and inclusive practice, concerns with educational theory and practice orientations, including ableism, are easily raised. This seminar invited advocates of inclusive practice to consider alternative theoretical approaches to education. In particular, Associate Professor Tim Corcoran introduced ecologics as a way of appreciating the connectedness of living events. The seminar considered five prospective conditions necessary for the use of ecologics and examined how, together, these conditions support a commitment to psychosocial justice. If equity, diversity, and inclusion are central to educational theory and practice, then psychological and social matters must be addressed as a unified relationality. The seminar argued that attention should be directed to how psychology comes to life, rather than primarily to what psychology is said to be.

 

Supporting the development of policy frameworks for inclusive education systems: Reflections from the work of the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education

Presenter: Professor Amanda Watkins, CEDEFOP

Abstract:
Professor Amanda Watkins reflected on the development of policy frameworks for inclusive education systems through the work of the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. The seminar considered key messages emerging from the Agency’s work with countries, including shifts away from compensatory approaches and a specific focus on labelling and funding models. It also reflected on the Agency’s working methods, the forms of evidence and outputs requested by country representatives, and the possible implications for academia when sharing research messages with policy makers.

 

Reflections, Commentaries and Hopes for Disability Studies

Presenter: Professor Mark Priestley, University of Leeds

Abstract:
Professor Mark Priestley shared reflections and commentaries on the significance of Disability Studies, disability policy in the UK and globally, and the role of disability activism and politics within research agendas. The event began with Professor Priestley in discussion with Dr Ieva Eskyte, Dr Miro Griffiths, Professor Anna Lawson, and Dr Claudia Coveney, who posed questions connected to different areas of his work. This was followed by questions, comments, and discussion with audience members attending in person and online.