CAPPE 18th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference
8th, 9th, 10th September
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 1st 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
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