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 philosophy—as 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

SPRING 2025

The DIScourse is taking a hiatus this semester—depending on interest, the workshop will start back up either over the summer or in the fall.

If you would like to stay up to date and receive emails with information about future workshop sessions, please contact S.P. (spl56@georgetown.edu) or Sara (purinton@sas.upenn.edu)!

PAST PRESENTATIONS

FALL 2024

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

Oct. 7th – AB Sicilia, "Oppression, Agency, and Depending on Others"

Oct. 21st – Bobbi Cohn, "Gaslighting-Up: When Gaslighting is Good"

Nov. 18th – Chris Weigel, "Lying as Respect in Family Caregiving for People With Dementia"

Nov. 25th – Nate Whelan-Jackson, "More than Merely Present: Mobile Maps and Agency in the City" (Published 2024)

FALL 2023

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

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)

Co-Authored with Marco Fasoli

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"

Forthcoming in Cripping the Canon: Claiming a Disability History of Philosophy, Edited by Melinda C. Hall and Sarah Gorman

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

Follow-Up to "On Valuing Impairment" (Published 2018)

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"

From a Book Manuscript, Co-Authored with Stephen Campbell

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

From a Book Manuscript on Disabled Agency

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 2027)

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)

Follow-Up to "Medicalization, 'Normal Function,' and the Definition of Health" (Published 2014)

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

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