Religion and Disability Studies Unit
The Religion and Disability Studies Unit invites proposals that critically examine the relationship between disability and religious thought, practice, or history. We welcome papers on all topics, yet with particular interest in non-Christian perspectives and underrepresented cultural locations.
In alignment with the presidential theme of freedom, we especially welcome proposals that discuss:
- Intersections of race and disability
- Explorations of madness or psychiatric disability
- Implications of the spatial turn in disability studies
- Anxieties among persons with disabilities and their communities regarding challenges to their civil liberties, healthcare, etc., within the current political climate.
A co-sponsorship with the Body and Religion Unit: A book panel on Perfect in Weakness: Disability and Human Flourishing in the New Creation (Baylor University Press, 2023) by Maja I. Whitaker. This session is closed, and we won't be accepting proposals for it.
The Religion and Disability Studies Unit is committed to maintaining the visibility, viability, and value of the experience and politics of disability as they relate to the study and practice of religion. We promote engagement between disability studies theory and the study of religion, examine the role of disability in lived religious experience and theology, and consider the historical and contemporary role of disability in diverse religious traditions, texts, and cultures. As intersectionality becomes an increasingly critical hermeneutic in the academy, we encourage robust dialogue and collaboration with other program units involved with disciplined reflection on religion.
| Chair | Dates | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| David Scott | dscott@iliff.edu | - | View |
| Sarah Jean Barton, Duke University | sarah.j.barton@duke.edu | - | View |