Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics 18th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference
8th, 9th, 10th September 2023
Online
Over the past decade, the cumulative brutalities of various crises, austerity measures and
organised abandonment through the Covid-19 pandemic, have pushed disabled people and
activists in many parts of the world to re-assess theories of disability, and reflect upon their
respective histories of political struggle. From Europe and the USA, to Southern Africa and
Central America, disabled people are scrutinising assumptions about the relationship between
disability, and disabled people’s movements, to capitalist nation states, welfare regimes,
labour markets, political parties, and justice systems. Processes of disablement, and the
alliances necessary for their overcoming, have, once again, become the focus of practical
discussion and collective action.
This opens the possibility for a renewed research programme for disabled people and their
allies; where political struggle and committed research can mutually inform transformative
practice, and where discursive or scholarly boundaries are elided. In the hope of furthering
such a programme, we invite presentations addressing the following, and related, questions:
– What is disability/disablement?
– What is the relationship between disability, capitalism and the state – historically and
currently?
– What are the key issues facing disabled people today – locally, regionally, globally?
– Which contemporary movements, campaigns or protests – around disability, race,
gender, sexuality – can inform our conceptions of disability politics and theory?
– Which theories or concepts can be imported/adapted from analyses of other social
movements?
– Do we need to revise longstanding analyses of ‘medicalisation’ in the construction of
disablement in the face of retreating welfare states, the global pandemic and shifting
institutional control?
– How can we construct a theory of disability that avoids ontological essentialism?
– What can a renewed disability theory and politics learn from recent analyses of
disablement in critical political economy, labour history, and social movement
theory?
We recognise that disabled people continue to be left out of debates that directly concern
them, in the academy, as much as any other part of our social world. We thus particularly
encourage disabled people, and disabled activists, to submit abstracts. If you identify as
disabled, neurodivergent, D/deaf, Mad or distressed, note this in your abstract.
300-word proposals for papers (20 mins), or panels (3 papers) should be sent to
cappe@brighton.ac.uk by 1
st May.
If you have any general questions about the conference, or any accessibility requirements,
please contact the organisers: z.sutherland@brighton.ac.uk or lukebeesley@outlook.ac.uk