Syracuse University to co-sponsor national Disability Studies in Education conference in Syracuse May 1-3

Syracuse University to co-sponsor national Disability Studies in Education conference in Syracuse May 1-3April 06, 2009Patrick Farrellpmfarrel@syr.edu

The Ninth Annual Second City Conference on Disability Studies in Education — co-sponsored this year by Disability Studies in Education, the Syracuse University Center on Human Policy, Law, and Disability Studies; the SU College of Law Disability Law and Policy Program, and the SU School of Education — will bring together scholars in disability studies in education and disability law to explore both the history of disability advocacy and continued struggles for disability rights in educational contexts.

The conference will take place on the SU campus from May 1-3. Registration is required. To register, visit http://www.disabilitystudiesineducation.org/2009conference.htm.

The conference will give experts in the field of disability studies opportunities to share their research, expertise and activism with an emphasis on histories of exclusion and activism, discourses and practices that shift the conversation from inclusion to belonging, critical and theoretical perspectives on disability studies, law and policy, and global perspectives on disability studies in education and law.

Conference keynote speakers are Martha L. Minow, Jeremiah Smith Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and Tom Skrtic, professor of special education at the University of Kansas.

Minow has taught at Harvard since 1981. Her subjects include constitutional law, civil procedure, human rights and education law. She writes about human rights and advocacy for members of racial and religious minorities and for women, children, and persons with disabilities. Her books include “Just Schools: Pursuing Equality in Societies of Difference” (with R. Shweder and H. Marcus, co-editors, Russell Sage Foundation, 2008) and “Making all the Difference: Inclusion, Exclusion and American Law” (Cornell University Press, 1990).

Skrtic’s academic interests are American pragmatism, organization theory, qualitative research and democratic social reform, which inform several of his published works, including “Disability and Democracy: Reconstructing (Special) Education for Postmodernity” (Teachers College Press, 1995) and “Behind Special Education: A Critical Analysis of Professional Culture and School Organization” (Love Publishing, 1991), and more recently his contributions to “Challenging Orthodoxy in Special Education: Dissenting Voices” (Gallagher et al., Love Publishing, 2004).

Conference highlights include a performance by disability rights activist Keith Jones. A composer, producer and hip-hop artist, Jones was featured on the documentary “Including Samuel.”

The conference also features a panel discussion with Larry Bissonnette and Tracy Thresher, two men from Vermont with autism on a road trip around the world. Their travels are being chronicled on film by Academy Award-winning documentary film director Gerardine Wurzburg, who will be on hand to record the session. Douglas Biklen, dean of the SU School of Education and producer (with Wurzburg) of this new road trip film, will moderate the panel.

Other panel discussions and seminars will cover the following topics related to disability studies:

• “Deafness & Disability Studies: Shall the Twain Ever Meet”
• “Rethinking Reform: Race & Disability”
• “Teaching the Teacher: Lessons in Belonging”
• “UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”
• “Widening the Horizons: Inclusion in Post-Secondary Education”
• “Promising Practices: Ensuring that All Students Belong”
• “Inclusion without Exception: Attending to the Margins”
• “Acting Up: Student Perspectives”
• “When I Leave School: Exploring Agency in Transition”
• “Shifting Political Landscapes & the Right to Belong”

Disability Studies in Education is a special interest group of the American Educational Research Association dedicated to seeking interdisciplinary approaches to understanding disability through research, policy and action.

For more information on the conference, visit http://www.disabilitystudiesineducation.org/2009conference.htm. Conference organizers Christine Ashby, Beth A. Ferri, Alan Foley and Arlene Kanter can be contacted by e-mail at conference@disabilitystudiesineducation.org.