The mission of the Disability Studies in Education SIG is to promote the understanding of disability from a social model perspective drawing on social, cultural, historical, discursive, philosophical, literary, aesthetic, artistic, and other traditions to challenge medical, scientific, and psychological models of disability as they relate to education.
7/5/2024
The Disability Studies in Education (DSE) Special Interest Group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) invites paper, symposium, roundtable, and/or poster proposal submissions for the 2025 conference in Denver, CO: April 23–27, 2025.
The theme of the 2025 meeting theme, Research, Remedy, and Repair: Toward Just Education Renewal, calls us to explore “how we can work across disciplinary, epistemological, and methodological orientations to forge deeper connections in our field that can speak to the challenges we face in education and in our imperfect multiracial democracy.” We come together as an educational research community to consider “the role that rigorous and relevant research can play to remedy educational inequality and to repair the harm done to and within public education, democratic institutions, and higher education.”
This year’s focus on Research, Remedy and Repair is an opportunity for deep reflection and movement forward through shared commitments to research to improve education for all and uphold the critical importance education holds in realizing democratic ideals. The 2025 theme is also an invitation to pause, (re)connect, and grieve as we hold space for the multilayered challenges, enduring changes, and significant absences we face, individually and collectively.
This is a generative theme for DSE scholarship, as a field that promotes understanding of connections between social and political events, ideologies, educational opportunities, and people's lived experiences of disability and its intersections. By prioritizing the incorporation of care, interdependence, and meaningful connection into relevant work and research, we can collectively remedy educational disparities and repair the damage done. This focus aligns with commemorating historical milestones including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Brown v. Board of Education decisions, which were attempts to address long standing educational inequalities through policy and practice during key moments of civil rights advocacy and backlash.
DSE scholarship considers “disability” through various cultural, political, social, and multifocal lenses, challenging outdated systems and models that perpetuate inequality, inequity, and discrimination. Such scholarship investigates and confronts oppressive policies and practices while engaging disabled and multiply marginalized people in and through critical perspectives and research. DSE scholarship also centers rich epistemological contributions, anti-oppressive frameworks, and a focus on centering people who have been historically marginalized in and by educational research. Proposals to the DSE SIG 2025 Call should prioritize a focus on repair and restoration relative to amplifying the experiences of disabled individuals in the pursuit of transformative educational change.
The DSE SIG encourages the submission of proposals that:
We also encourage you to submit other DSE-related symposium, paper, and/or roundtable proposals that you see fit for our overall DSE framework and SIG purpose to the 2025 AERA Annual Meeting. To learn more about our DSE framework and SIG purpose please visit our website at: https://www.aera.net/SIG143/Disability-Studies-in-Education-SIG-143
For more information regarding the 2025 AERA Annual Meeting program and the proposal submission process please contact the Program Co-Chairs:
Casey Woodfield, Ph.D.
Program Co-Chair, DSE SIG, AERA
Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary and Inclusive Education
College of Education
Rowan University
woodfield@rowan.edu
Sarah Young, Ed.D.
Director, Disability Support Services
Trinity Washington University
youngsar@trinitydc.edu
4/9/2024
Location: Table 13, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 200, Exhibit Hall B
Type: Roundtable
Location: Table 5, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 200, Exhibit Hall B
Location: Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Floor: Level 4, Franklin 9
Session Type: Symposium
Location: Table 16, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 200, Exhibit Hall B
Session Type: Roundtable
Location: Table 4, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 200, Exhibit Hall B
Location: Table 1, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 200 , Exhibit Hall B
Session Type: Paper Session
Location: Table 19, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 200, Exhibit Hall B
Location: Table 26, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 200, Exhibit Hall B
Location: Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Floor: Level 4, Franklin 3
Session Type: Business Meeting
Location: Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Floor: Level 4, Franklin 8
Location: Table 21, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 200, Exhibit Hall B
Session Title: Overt and covert tracking: Relationships among curricular access, school policies, and student characteristics Location: Table 18, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Second Floor, Exhibit Hall B Session Type: Roundtable
Session Title: Challenges and perspectives for Deaf education with multilingual students
Location: Table 7, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 200, Exhibit Hall B
Session: Roundtable
Session Title: Symposium: Decarceral, Disabled, and Reparative Futures in Higher Education Location: Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Floor: Level 3, Room 307 Session Type: Symposium
Session Title: Innovations to Support Students with Autism Location: Table 15, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Level 200, Exhibit Hall B Session type: Roundtable
Session Title: Interrogating Language Ideologies: Critical Perspectives on Racial Equity for Multilinguals Location: Table 21, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Level 200, Exhibit Hall B Session Type: Roundtable
Session Title: Pursuing Racial Justice through Intersectional Inclusive Education
Location: Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Floor: Level 4, Franklin 11 Session type: Symposium
Session Title: Intersectional and Disability Consciousness in Education Location: Table 30, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 200, Exhibit Hall B Session Type: Roundtable
Session Title: Qualitative Inquiry Through the Senses
Location: Table 40, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 200,, Exhibit Hall B
Session Title: AERA Graduate Student Research-in-Process (RiP) Roundtable Series, Session 4 Location: Table 3, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 200, Room 204ABC Session type: Invited Roundtable
Session Title: Parent Narratives of Advocacy, Guidance, and Racial Socialization Location: Pennsylvania Convention Center, Floor: Level 100, Room 110A Session type: Paper session
8/13/2023
Call for Nominations, Term 2024-2026
Dear DSE SIG Family,
The DSE’s nominating committee is accepting nominations for SIG officers for 2-year positions (positions begin in Spring/Summer 2024 and continue through AERA 2025. Officer positions offer a great opportunity to become more involved in the SIG and develop relationships with other SIG members. If you wish to nominate someone or self-nominate, please contact the nominating committee no later than September 29, 2023.
Positions Open for Nomination:
1. Co-chair (to replace Emily Nusbaum)
2. Program Co-chair (to replace Katie Newhouse)
3. Secretary/Treasurer (to replace Kimiya Magzhi)
Descriptions of Positions:
Chair(s). The Chair(s) shall be responsible for the general administration of the SIG, for ensuring that the SIG Bylaws are followed, and shall act as a liaison between the SIG and AERA and the SIG and the SIG Executive Committee. The Chair(s) shall preside at all meetings of the SIG’s Executive Committee and at the Annual Business Meeting. The Chair(s) shall act as a parliamentarian or shall appoint a SIG member to serve in that role for each meeting. The Chair(s) shall appoint ad hoc committees as needed. Unless otherwise specified in these Bylaws, the Chair of the SIG shall appoint persons to assist officers, chair committees, or carry out other work of the SIG.
Program Chair(s). The Program Chair(s) shall be responsible for creating and disseminating a Call for Papers, coordinating reviews, organizing panels for the annual meeting, and conducting all reporting procedures in accordance with AERA bylaws.
Secretary/Treasurer. The secretary/treasurer shall be responsible for the safekeeping of all financial documents and any official correspondence and meeting minutes of SIG/DSE.
Required Information for Nominations:
1. The candidate’s full name
2. The institutional affiliation and/or professional status of the candidate
3. A biographical statement for the candidate, which can be up to 250 words.
All nominations must be received by September 29, 2023. Please email the information to us a Word document or PDF. All candidates must be current members of the SIG. Please send the nomination information and any questions to Emily Nusbaum (emilynusbaumphd@gmail.com) and Lydia Ocasio-Stoutenburg (lpo5123@psu.edu).
Thank you for considering and we welcome your contributions!
Take care,
Lydia and Emily
6/16/2023
2024 Call for Proposals: AERA Disability Studies in Education SIG
Deadline: July 31, 2023, 11:59 p.m. PT
The Disability Studies in Education (DSE) Special Interest Group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) invites paper, symposium, roundtable, and/or poster proposal submissions for the 2024 conference in Philadelphia, PA: April 11–14, 2024 and virtually April 25–26, 2024. The theme of the conference, Dismantling Racial Injustice and Constructing Educational Possibilities: A Call to Action, is pivotal for the field of educational research and a generative theme for DSE scholarship.
The purpose of educational research is to critically interrogate and confront inequities that maintain and perpetuate ableism, racism, sexism, and classism as structural systems in our societies (Artiles, 2022; 2019). In order to co-construct equitable research agendas that are relevant to communities, it is necessary to take an abolitionist stance that questions how multiply-marginalized bodies are positioned (e.g., policed, honored, excluded) within and outside educational institutions (Annamma et al., 2021). To do so, it is crucial to expand existing research designs and methods to center disability and an understanding of the ways that multiply marginalized people (i.e. disabled folks of color) experience magnified systemic oppressions. This year’s theme urges educational researchers to “unapologetically center race, racial injustice, and other forms of oppression in our work, while building spaces of emancipation, justice, and dignity.” This call to action is particularly relevant given the collusive nature of racism and ableism (Annamma et al., 2022) and the ongoing erasure of multiply marginalized disabled people within the larger educational research traditions. To that end, the DSE SIG seeks to continue cultivating spaces to build theory, research, praxis, and multiple modes to communicate findings, which pivot around asset-based, affirming understandings of disability. We encourage proposals that take up critical approaches within the DSE framework which address the ways disability is constructed alongside race as well as other identity categories. We invite you to submit a proposal to the DSE SIG for this year’s annual meeting. We hope to include your contributions in work toward dreaming and creating a radically different educational reality that is intersectional, interdisciplinary, and innovative.
Proposals submitted to the DSE SIG explore the notion of “disability” through a cultural, political, and social lens rather than through a medicalized and deficit-based model of difference. DSE scholarship also seeks to destabilize the taken for granted economic, political, and social systems that (re)produce inequities and injustices. Moreover, DSE scholarship critically examines, disrupts, and interrogates educational policies and practices. Given this, it is imperative that DSE scholarship continues to push for authentic engagement with people within disabled and historically/multiply marginalized communities in the process of research design, implementation and dissemination. To this end, we welcome proposals that:
We also encourage you to submit other DSE-related symposium, paper, and/or roundtable proposals that you see fit for our overall DSE framework and SIG purpose to the 2024 AERA Annual Meeting. To learn more about our DSE framework and SIG purpose please visit our website at: https://www.aera.net/SIG143/Disability-Studies-in-Education-SIG-143
For more information regarding the 2024 AERA Annual Meeting program and the proposal submission process please contact the Program Co-Chairs:
Clinical Assistant Professor, NYU Teacher Residency
Director, Special Education Programs
Department of Teaching and Learning
New York University School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
newhouse@nyu.edu
6/4/2020
Disability Studies in Education SIG Statement on Black Lives Matter, Police Brutality, and Anti-Blackness
In an act of resistance and defiance to white supremacy, the Disability Studies in Education SIG leadership is speaking out to condemn all forms of racism, anti-blackness, sexism, ethnic oppression, and other forms of (neo)colonial logic that have been used to justify the recent murders of Ahmaud Aubrey, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, and harassment of Christian Cooper.
No statement is going to be enough; just as no single action is enough. Here, drawing from Black Lives Matter and the BIPOC project (see statements attached), we emphasize the need for collective rebellion against those who embolden racist, sexist, and colonial logics of oppression. Anti-blackness and white supremacy are not new to structures, culture, systems, beliefs, and practices in the U.S. However, they are now so rampant that they are the norm. For us to remain silent is to be complicit with the systematic violence that continues to persist, in particular, among vulnerable multiply marginalized communities. We are in solidarity with our BIPOC friends, colleagues, students, families, neighbors, and peoples that have worked for years/decades/centuries toward abolitionist ends, particularly Black Lives Matters. We reject anti-blackness in all its forms, including within education, inclusion, and DSE itself.
We recognize that racial trauma is real (e.g., PTSE, fear, exhaustion, anger, isolation, etc.) and that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) are disproportionately vulnerable to a range of health issues linked consistently to racism, sexism, (neo)colonialism, and ableism. We know change is not achieved by a single individual; It is done among communities uniting together with a shared goal of love, community, respect, and compassion in justice for all. Together, we are stronger. We have much work to do and we recognize that this work will look different for different folx - protesting, reflecting, recognizing, reading, supporting BIPOC businesses and financial contributions to Black Lives Matters, as well as other social justice organizations. Moreover, there is a timely need to support bail funds and cite BIPOC scholars/scholar-activists and community members, while encouraging universities, schools, corporations, and small businesses to divest from police industrial complex, the prison industrial complex, and all forms of oppressive ideological and repressive state apparatuses. We need to look to our teaching, curriculum, pedagogy, scholarship, and activism as well as our silences and failures.
We encourage all leaders and members within the SIG to make and hold space for BIPOC. To think critically about whiteness and white male heteronormative ableist supremacy, and to take our responsibilities seriously. How do we benefit from, perpetuate, and dismantle the systems and structures that oppress not only ourselves but those most vulnerable? How do we push back against the humans that oppress? How can we structure spaces to (re)center the voices and lived experiences of BIPOC from all walks of life without co-opting their time and energy? These are but a few questions we ask in solidarity for our membership to consider critically.
Say Their Names - Their Lives Matter
We stand/sit/roll/limp/breathe/gaze/gesture/build in solidarity with you
Danielle Cowley, Holly Pearson, Saili Kulkarni, Amanda Miller, Phillip Boda, Katie Newhouse, Keri Rodgers, and María Cioè-Peña
If interested visit our Facebook group here
Black Lives Matter, “What We Believe”: Retrieved from https://blacklivesmatter.com/
Black Lives Matter began as a call to action in response to state-sanctioned violence and anti-Black racism. Our intention from the very beginning was to connect Black people from all over the world who have a shared desire for justice to act together in their communities. The impetus for that commitment was, and still is, the rampant and deliberate violence inflicted on us by the state.
Enraged by the death of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent acquittal of his killer, George Zimmerman, and inspired by the 31-day takeover of the Florida State Capitol by POWER U and the Dream Defenders, we took to the streets. A year later, we set out together on the Black Lives Matter Freedom Ride to Ferguson, in search of justice for Mike Brown and all of those who have been torn apart by state-sanctioned violence and anti-Black racism. Forever changed, we returned home and began building the infrastructure for the Black Lives Matter Global Network, which, even in its infancy, has become a political home for many.
Ferguson helped to catalyze a movement to which we’ve all helped give life. Organizers who call this network home have ousted anti-Black politicians, won critical legislation to benefit Black lives, and changed the terms of the debate on Blackness around the world. Through movement and relationship building, we have also helped catalyze other movements and shifted culture with an eye toward the dangerous impacts of anti-Blackness.
These are the results of our collective efforts.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network is as powerful as it is because of our membership, our partners, our supporters, our staff, and you. Our continued commitment to liberation for all Black people means we are continuing the work of our ancestors and fighting for our collective freedom because it is our duty.
Every day, we recommit to healing ourselves and each other, and to co-creating alongside comrades, allies, and family a culture where each person feels seen, heard, and supported.
We acknowledge, respect, and celebrate differences and commonalities.
We work vigorously for freedom and justice for Black people and, by extension, all people.
We intentionally build and nurture a beloved community that is bonded together through a beautiful struggle that is restorative, not depleting.
We are unapologetically Black in our positioning. In affirming that Black Lives Matter, we need not qualify our position. To love and desire freedom and justice for ourselves is a prerequisite for wanting the same for others.
We see ourselves as part of the global Black family, and we are aware of the different ways we are impacted or privileged as Black people who exist in different parts of the world.
We are guided by the fact that all Black lives matter, regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, economic status, ability, disability, religious beliefs or disbeliefs, immigration status, or location.
We make space for transgender brothers and sisters to participate and lead.
We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans-antagonistic violence.
We build a space that affirms Black women and is free from sexism, misogyny, and environments in which men are centered.
We practice empathy. We engage comrades with the intent to learn about and connect with their contexts.
We make our spaces family-friendly and enable parents to fully participate with their children. We dismantle the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work “double shifts” so that they can mother in private even as they participate in public justice work.
We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.
We foster a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).
We cultivate an intergenerational and communal network free from ageism. We believe that all people, regardless of age, show up with the capacity to lead and learn.
We embody and practice justice, liberation, and peace in our engagements with one another.
The BIPOC Project: Retrieved from https://www.thebipocproject.org/
Our Mission
The BIPOC Project aims to build authentic and lasting solidarity among Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), in order to undo Native invisibility, anti-Blackness, dismantle white supremacy and advance racial justice.
We use the term BIPOC to highlight the unique relationship to whiteness that Indigenous and Black (African Americans) people have, which shapes the experiences of and relationship to white supremacy for all people of color within a U.S. context. We unapologetically focus on and center relationships among BIPOC folks.
Our Thinking
This nation is firmly entrenched in maintaining white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism. This reality has been resisted in multiple ways, including organizing led by and among various communities of color for survival. However, many efforts still focus only on combating white supremacy, with limited attention to the way communities of color adopt and reinforce these harms amongst ourselves and against other marginalized groups in a “race towards the bottom” for naming our pain. As a result, many multiracial BIPOC communities continue to be challenged to develop authentic and accountable inter-group relationships despite a shared struggle under white supremacy. These challenges often undermine anti-racist organizing among people of color because each community is differently shaped and situated depending on intersectional issues and identities.
BIPOC Project Solidarity Principles
1.Decolonize Stories - Seek, learn, share and affirm the distinct histories of BIPOC communities; and unlearn dominant narratives
2.Develop a Power Analysis - Consider how each BIPOC community is differently situated in the racial hierarchy and differently affected by issues
3.Uplift Native and Black Humanity - Honor the legacies of Native and Black resistance to colonization and white supremacy; and actively examine how disparities and injustices uniquely affect Native and Black communities
4.Organize Your People – ‘Call in’ your communities to deeper understanding and empathy for all BIPOC communities with love and compassion
5.Build Intergroup Connections and Relationships – Build just relationships; and invest in one another’s liberation
6.Commit to Personal and Collective Healing – Practice both individual and community care; acknowledge ruptures and invite connection; and center healing and transformative justice
12/3/2019
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS 2020
AERA Disability Studies in Education Special Interest Group
Outstanding Dissertation Award
The Disability Studies in Education (DSE) Special Interest Group (SIG) is pleased to invite nominations from junior faculty and graduate students of dissertations that represent outstanding/innovative theoretical and/or empirical scholarship in the field of DSE. Recipient(s) will receive recognition by the SIG in the form of an award and will be invited to present their research at the Business Meeting of the DSE SIG during the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, to be held in San Francisco, California on Friday, April 17, – Tuesday, April 21, 2020.
Junior faculty/graduate students who self-nominate or are nominated for this award by university faculty or SIG member(s) must submit academic scholarship that was conducted as a dissertation and was defended, but not published, before December 31, 2019. The nominated work should represent an original, scholarly contribution to knowledge related to theory, policy, and/or pedagogical practice in the area of Disability Studies in Education. The winner must be willing and able to travel to the AERA conference in San Francisco to present her or his work and receive the award.
To be considered, adherence to the following criteria is necessary:
For the purposes of ensuring masked review, please adhere to these submissions guidelines: The application must include the submission of three separate documents:
Submissions will be judged on the criteria of quality, importance or significance of the work’s contribution to the field, and originality of design and/or inquiry methods by past award recipients. Nomination packages should be sent via email to both AERA DSE SIG Co-Chairs: Jessica Bacon (baconj@montclair.edu) and Danielle Cowley (danielle.cowley@uni.edu) by January 15, 2020. If you have any questions, please contact us.
Please see the Awards tab of the DSE SIG website for Past Award Recipients
11/13/2019
Dear DSE Community, It is with great sadness that we share the recent death of Dr. Chris Kliewer. Please see the note below from our SIG co-chair Dr. Danielle Cowley.
I am writing to update you all on information regarding services for our friend and colleague Chris Kliewer, who unexpectedly passed away last Tuesday after an accidental fall at his home. My Department head at UNI has been in touch with Chris' family and information about services can be found below.
His family is also working on the details receipt of memorials, donations, cards, etc. and that information will be posted on the Richardson Funeral Home website by Sunday, I believe. Take care and please keep Chris' family, particularly Cole, Jackson, and Joey, in your thoughts.
--Danielle (AERA DSE SIG Co-Chair)
From the University of Northern Iowa:
Chris Kliewer, a professor in the Special Education Department in the College of Education, passed away on Tuesday, November 5, 2019. Chris joined the University of Northern Iowa in 1995 after receiving his Ph.D. from Syracuse University. Chris enriched the lives of his students, colleagues, and friends with his unwavering devotion to children with disabilities and their families.
Memorial services for Chris Kliewer are scheduled at the Richardson Funeral Home for Saturday, November 23, 2019 from 1:00 – 3:00. During this gathering, a time of sharing is planned for 2:00. Following the memorial services, a reception will be held at the Cedar Falls Women’s Club.
Richardson Funeral Home
615 Main Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa
Cedar Falls Women’s Club
304 Clay Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa
See awards page for information about DSE travel grants and DSE Outstanding Dissertation awards
SIG Officers
Committees Structure & Government