THE DISCOURSE 

A PHILOSOPHY & DISABILITY WORKSHOP

The DIScourse is an ongoing, virtual philosophy and disability workshop co-organized by S.P. Leeds and Sara Purinton, in partnership with the Society for Philosophy and Disability

Although it is primarily for graduate students and faculty working on disability, the DIScourse is open to anyone interested in issues related to disability. 

A note from the organizers — 

Our intention in focusing on philosophy and disability—rather than just philosophy of disability—is to explicitly make room for us to discuss both philosophy of disability and disabled philosophy, as well as other related areas

At the DIScourse, we think of this distinction—between philosophy of disability and disabled philosophyas parallel to the distinction between philosophy of race and Africana philosophy, which are not identical, despite there being some overlap, as Johnathan Flowers has crucially pointed out here.

JOINING THE DISCOURSE

If you—or any of your friends or colleagues—are interested in being added to the DIScourse listserv or presenting your work, please reach out to S.P. (spl56@georgetown.edu) or Sara (purinton@sas.upenn.edu)! 

Work-in-Progress Presentations

The DIScourse is meant to serve as an opportunity to workshop ideas at any stage of development, so presentations on anything from abstracts and outlines to complete drafts and (recently) published articles are welcome

Whatever form it takes, presenters are asked share a draft of their work-in-progress a week prior to their presentation so that workshop attendees can read it ahead of time. 

The structure of each workshop session involves a brief introduction from the presenter(s)—during which they have the opportunity to provide an overview of the main points of their work-in-progress—followed by mediated discussion.

CURRENT SCHEDULE

FALL 2024

Sep. 30th – Robert Hartman, "Virtues that Mitigate the Deprivations of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"

Oct. 7thAB Sicilia, "Oppression, Agency, and Depending on Others"

Oct. 21stBobbi Cohn, "Gaslighting-Up: Fighting Ableist Fire with Fire"

Oct. 28thTBD

Nov. 4thTBD 

Nov. 11thTBD 

Dec. 2ndTBD 

Dec. 9thTBD 

PAST PRESENTATIONS

FALL 2023

Sep. 25th – J. Logan Smilges, "TransCrip Critique: On Negativity and the Ableism of Trans-antagonism" (Forthcoming 2023)

Oct. 2nd – George Estreich, "Tlön, Uqbar, ChatGPT" (Published 2023)

Oct. 16th – Corinne Lajoie, "Learning to Notice Inaccessibility"  

Oct. 30th – T. Virgil Murthy, "Emotive Atypicality"

Nov. 13th – David Wasserman, "Discourse on Disability Definitions"

Nov. 27th – Guido Cassinadri, "Rejecting the Extended Cognition Moral Narrative: A Critique of Two Normative Arguments for Extended Cognition" (Published 2023)

SPRING 2023

Jan. 23rd – T. Virgil Murthy, "The Belief Model of Substance Use Disorder" 

Jan. 30th – Andrea Pitts, "Gloria E. Anzaldúa on Identity, Pain, and Disability Within and Beyond Philosophy"

Feb. 6th – Sean Aas & Dana Howard, "Defining Disability and the Political Distinctiveness of Disablement” (Abstract)

Feb. 13th – Adi Goldiner, "From Disability Accommodations to Universal Modifications: Lessons from the Peculiar Case of Extended Time on Exams"

Mar. 6th – Katherine Sepulveda, Untitled (Abstract)

Mar. 13th – Sarah Mann-O'Donnell, Introduction to Touch and Blindness from Molyneux to Freud (Dissertation)

Mar. 20th – Joe Stramondo, "Problematic Motivations" 

Mar. 27th – Kevin Timpe, "Disabilities’ Impact on Well-being"

Apr. 17th – Ian James Kidd, "Truthfulness and Experiences of Illness"

Apr. 24th – Ally Peabody Smith, "Self-Advocates, In-Group Advocacy, and Friends-In-Common: Assessing Potential Advocates for Non-Speaking Intellectual Disability"

May 1st – Katie Eyer, "Claiming Disability" (Published 2020)

FALL 2022

We spent our first five sessions reading and discussing The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability (2017) by Jasbir K. Puar, before moving into weekly discussions of presented works in progress.

Oct. 13th Corinne Lajoie, "Crip Phenomenology and the Disorientations of Access"

Oct. 20th – Johnathan Flowers, "Disability as a Cultural Problem" (Published 2021)

Oct. 27th – Bella-Rose Kelly, "Concealing Gender Non-Conformity: A Trans Phenomenology of Disability" (Forthcoming 2023)

Nov. 3rd – Joel Michael Reynolds, "Philosophy of Disability: An Introduction" (Forthcoming 2024)

Nov. 10th – Erica Bigelow, "What a Shame She 'Went Mad': Righteous Anger, Madness, and Disability (In)Justice" 

Nov. 17th – Quill Kukla, "What Counts as a Disease, and Why Does it Matter?" (Published 2022)

Dec. 1st – Adam Cureton, "Pity, Self-Pity, and Disability"

Dec. 8th – Jennifer Hawkins, Presentation on Adaptive Preferences and Well-Being