Research and writing are integral to promote understanding of a field. Disability Rights have generated this interest in the recently emergent field of disability studies. The interest is largely generic and people feel the need for advice to zero in on a particular topic of research. In order to assist persons interested in working in the field, Centre for Disability Studies, NALSAR University of Law and the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, BITS- Pilani Hyderabad Campus will co-organize a Fostering Research in Disability Workshop on 19th and 20th December, 2020.
Fostering Research in Disability Concept Note
That disability is a category of vulnerability and precarity is no longer in doubt, however, questions related to the conceptual constitution of this category remain under-researched. Scholarship on disability, over the last few decades, has informed disability law and public policy consistently. How can disability law and disability culture in practice inform research on disability? The two day Research Workshop will engage with questions of disability with a special focus on the theme, ‘accidents, emergencies and disasters.’
Accidents, emergencies and disasters are leading causes of disability across the world. Both congenital and acquired disabilities may be linked to these causes in different ways. Children born in environments that are disaster prone, both natural and industrial, are likely to be affected by impairments due to malnutrition, genetic infections and psychological trauma. So also, emergencies related to the COVID pandemic have alerted us to a more widespread experience of disablement and enabled us to think about disablement more actively. Did the pandemic make disability a more widely experienced phenomenon? The threat of a possibly debilitating infection and the experience of living with the infection. The imposition of lockdowns restricted movement and made the world inaccessible; it stole incomes and made distress a common experience while also increasing chances of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Access to medical treatment and nursing care became scarce for those living with impairments that required continual medical attention. Pre-existing disabilities were exacerbated due to lockdown restrictions. Education and employment moving online in some sectors has resulted in people with different access requirements having to struggle further to access academic resources and optimum working conditions.
Disability Studies as an academic field of research and inquiry enables us to reflect on aspects of disability scenarios presented by accidents, emergencies and disasters. This intensive two-day Research Workshop on Fostering Research in Disability, aims to apprise participants of significant developments in the field of disability studies as also point to issues, topics and areas within the field which merit research. Resource persons for the Workshop will include international scholars as well as experts from the South Asian region working in the fields of disability studies and allied subjects. Topics of instruction and discussion include:
- Does disability take a distinct colour in how it is understood when arising out of accidents, emergencies and disasters respectively?
- Are there different perspectives of understanding disability as a result of accidents, emergencies and disasters when examined across disciplines?
- How do we look at questions of prevention, planning and compensation, and any other themes that run common to disability arising out of each of these factors?
Given that the COVID pandemic is an evolving situation, this year’s Research Workshop will run entirely online and would be open to anyone who is interested in disability related research. Students enrolled in research programs at universities, early-career faculty members or those recently beginning research and writing on disability are welcome to participate in the program. A closed-door workshop may also be organised in the future when the COVID situation improves and if there is a need felt for the same.
Contact details and Last date
All persons interested in attending the Research Workshop may write to winterschool@nalsar.ac.in by 10th December, 2020 expressing their interest in the programme. The web-links for the respective sessions of the Research Workshop, along with the detailed sessions plan and other relevant information pertaining to the programme would be shared on the email id with which a person has registered.
No Registration Fee
Access: All sessions will be supported with sign-language interpretation and closed-captioning. Sessions will be recorded and made available to participants at the end of each session to be accessed asynchronously.