Philosophy, disability and social change conference (9-11 Dec 2020)

The Philosophy, Disability and Social Change online conference comprises presentations by disabled philosophers whose cutting-edge research challenges members of the philosophical community to:

1. think more critically about the metaphysical and epistemological status of disability;
2. closely examine how philosophy of disability is related to the tradition and discipline of philosophy;
3. acknowledge the continuing exclusion of disabled philosophers from the profession of philosophy;
4. seriously consider how philosophy and philosophers contribute to the pervasive inequality and subordination that disabled people confront throughout society;
5. develop mechanisms designed to transform the current professional and institutional position of disabled philosophers in particular and the economic, political and social position of disabled people more generally.

The presentations will highlight the diversity and range of approaches to critical philosophical work on disability and showcase the heterogeneity with respect to race, gender, nationality, sexuality, gender identity, culture, age and class of the community of disabled philosophers.

This conference is organised as part of the Alfred Landecker Programme at the Blavatnik School of Government.

Session titles: 

• Unmaking disability: Philosophy and social change
• African communitarian philosophy and disability in African contexts
• Dis/ableist inheritance
• Ageism, ableism and the power of the double bind
• Philosophy, the apparatus of disability, and the nursing-home industrial complex
• Neurodiversity and the pathology paradigm
• A neurodiversity paradigm for moral responsibility
• Cheap talk: Stuttering, trolls and talking heads
• Vulnerability to COVID-19 and the moral perniciousness of congregate care
• Captivity, carceral logics, and disposability
• Chronic fatigue as adversity under capitalism
• Phenomenologies of debilitation and questions of volition
• 'He's not worth it': The deleterious character of the disabled Black male
• COVID-19 as crisis
• Risking ourselves: The politics and persons of risk