Since 2015, the Critical Disability Studies Collective (CDSC) has fostered a thriving academic community around interdisciplinary, intersectional, and transnational approaches to studying disability. We've collaborated with numerous partners to hold reading/writing groups, symposia, visiting speakers, pedagogy workshops, and more. We believe the time is ripe to build infrastructure and long-term commitment for a degree-granting critical disability studies program at UMN.
Our mission is to establish an undergraduate major, minor, and graduate certificate in Critical Disability Studies (CDS) that is truly interdisciplinary, reaching across UMN colleges and campuses. This initiative will be housed in the College of Liberal Arts and grounded in intersectional scholarship, though our affiliation with the Center for Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender and Sexuality Studies (RIDGS). We need the widespread support from faculty, staff, students, and community members from across the UMN system to move this initiative forward. Becoming an initiative will allow the CDSC to shift from a volunteer organization into the institutionally-sustainable, academic program the UMN community deserves.
To show your support for a Critical Disability Studies Initiative at UMN, fill out this quick, brief survey.
