Society for Disability Studies 21st Annual Conference

Monday, June 18, 2007- Friday, June 22, 2007
Location: New York City, NY

Call for Proposals Submission Deadline: 1 December 2007

We invite proposals from any field that examine the ways in which disability and urban issues intersect; engage the mobility of metaphor and the refiguration of space; and/or explore the ways in which Disability Studies shifts and translates in application to specific sites and communities. Potential topics include:

• Public Health
• Violence, War, and Terror
• Mobility and Metaphor
• Housing, Home, and Homelessness
• Access and Spatiality
• Immigration and Translation
• Education
• Globalization and Transnational Critique
• Artistic Practices, Cultural Production, and Crip Culture
• History and Memory
• Categorization and Citizenship
• Public Policy in the Global City
• Bodies and Borders
• Surveillance and Security, Visibility and Invisibility
• Activist Communities, Strategies, and Identities
• Architectural Mappings and Geographical Textures
• Pollution, Garbage, and Environmental Devastation

SDS invites activists, artists, and scholars to submit proposals for all work in progress in Disability Studies. We welcome interdisciplinary proposals that bring together scholars in different fields or using different methodologies, embodying the kinds of translation and movement evoked in this year's theme. Work can be submitted in a variety of formats, including workshops, paper presentations, poster sessions, performances, video/DVD recordings, etc. For the 2008 conference, we also would like to introduce new seminar slots for the discussion of shared readings, pre-circulated papers, or other focused topics. The Program Committee will make every effort to honor participants' requests insofar as presentation format. We ask participants to bear in mind that the committee may reassign participants to other presentation formats, styles, and panels in order to develop the richest program possible.

Accessibility in presentations is central to the philosophy of SDS. Presenters should explore ways to make physical, sensory, and intellectual access a fundamental part of their presentation. All presenters are required to, at minimum, provide e-text versions of papers in advance of the conference (for open captioning), large-print hard copies (18 point font or larger) of all handouts, hard copies or outlines of their talks in 12 point and 18 point fonts, audio description of visual images, charts, and video/DVDs, and open or closed captioning of films and video clips. Presentations should also be planned so that their delivery will accommodate open-captioning and ASL translation. In order to facilitate ASL interpretation and open captioning, drafts of accepted presentations will be due by 1 May 2008. If you have questions about making your presentation accessible, please contact Alison Kafer or Petra Kuppers. Please note: English and ASL are the two main languages in use at SDS; if you have other language needs, please indicate such on your proposal and we will try to assist you in obtaining accommodations.

The deadline for proposals is 1 December 2007. Participants will be notified of their acceptance by 15 February 2008.

For your convenience, the electronic form for submitting your proposal is available at the SDS conference website. Please submit proposals electronically via the online application or by submitting the application in text and rich text format using the form available and sending the completed proposals to Lisa Pollich at [email protected]. Questions about the conference program or submission process should be directed to Alison Kafer or Petra Kuppers. Questions related to the online application can be addressed to Pratik Patel.

If electronic submission is not possible, please mail or fax proposals to arrive by 1 December 2007:

Lisa Pollich
Society for Disability Studies
JFK Institute for Worker Education
The City University of New York
101 West 31st St.
14th Floor
New York, NY 10001
Fax: 646.344.7319