Join Us for a Discussion on Critical Race Theory and Disability Theory

The discussion will be focused on a paper-in-progress called Critical Race/Disability Theory: An Introduction and Roadmap authored by Beth Ribet (Repair), Jyoti Nanda (Golden Gate University School of Law), and Kaaryn Gustafson (UC Irvine School of Law).

The program will also include commentary from: Juliann Anesi (UCLA), Rabia Belt (Stanford Law), and Camille Nelson (American University)

Tuesday, February 11, 2020 from 4-6pm
UCLA Law School, Room 1314
RSVP by February 7, 2020

This event is wheelchair accessible. Please be aware that this is a fragrance-free event.  Email accommodation requests, including ASL translation, by February 3 to ppalomo@college.ucla.edu.

Sponsored by: UCLA Disability Studies, Repair, Critical Race Studies at UCLA Law, and the UCLA Center for the Study of Women

Full Paper Abstract

With only some limited exceptions, the fields of Critical Disability Theory and Critical Race Theory have remained dissociated from one another, with few scholars drawing upon both and even fewer weaving together related themes. This divide is notable given that related intellectual spheres that foreground intersection – such as Critical Race Feminism, and Queer Disability scholarship — have become well-recognized. In this paper, the authors imagine and outline concepts, analytical frames, and social movement agendas central to the possibility of Critical Race/Disability Theory as an integrated intellectual landscape. Three key branches of study are centered in this analysis: 1) “disablement” — referencing the infliction of injuries, illnesses and impairments through intersectional racial subordination; 2) race, disability and identity — with an emphasis on the historical construction of disability as the antithesis of white genetic, moral and social ideals, and corresponding contemporary manifestations of racialized disability tropes; and 3) structural and institutional disability/race subordination — unpacking the ways in which disability stigma and disability-based vulnerabilities can at times be used to punish or endanger people of color at the same time that people who are white can sometimes mobilize disability diagnoses and identities to secure rights and benefits. The paper offers specific sites of disability/racial subordination in order to illustrate useful concepts and to contemplate prospects for emergent scholarship and praxis.