In 2022-23, we hosted a Disability Studies cluster through UCSC’s Humanities Institute: Disability Geographies and Disability Time Travels. Our goals were as follows:
Build community at UCSC: Part of our goal with this cluster is to identify and bring together the significant, but currently disconnected, group of people on our campus who are working in this field. To build community, we’ll ask a set of basic questions:
- What are individuals’ current research projects?
- Assuming that scholarly and artistic work can take a disability approach to any topic and may not just be about disability (much as feminist work need not be about gender), how do disability justice perspectives inform individuals’ work?
- What kinds of common themes and points of disagreement emerge from the group?
- What are possible future collaborations?
Offer disability programming: To date there have been very few disability studies-related events or initiatives on our campus. We’re interested in offering engaging, accessible events.
Consider a Disability Studies Minor: Despite our rich activist history and clear student demand, UCSC has no coherent offerings in Disability Studies (DS), and we are interested in considering a possible DS minor. Our questions of interest include:
- What principles of disability pedagogy do we value? What makes for a fundamentally accessible minor?
- How can a minor center the arts and humanities in ways that value disability performance and culture?
- What is the hidden disability history of UCSC, particularly in our legacies of activism?
- How can a DS minor recognize that many students and faculty are experiencing mental health crises and create spaces for community and healing?
