Dear Disability Studies minors,

Your participation in the minor is, in itself, a commitment to justice and an act of engagement. Hopefully, the minor has offered some sustenance to you as you live your principals and strive to make sense of a grossly inequitable world. Where the pandemic revealed and exacerbated the ugly underbelly of racial and disability inequity (in extreme instances causing hospitals to choose which lives had more value than others), the murder of George Floyd has ignited the justified fury of citizens, upon whose bodies violence and trauma was and is currently enacted and institutionalized. While our different experiences have been informed by our different histories, I want to let you know that I am thinking of you, thankful for how you have brought yourselves, heart and mind, to the work you are doing. I wish for your well-being, for your safety, and for your ability to be with loved ones. These unprecedented times call for unprecedented acts of care.

Sincerely,

Victoria Marks

Chair, Disability Studies Faculty Advisory Committee Professor, Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance Associate Dean, School of the Arts and Architecture