Pictured, five white-presenting individuals of various ages and genders – with Center for Disability Studies Director Michael Rembis in the center – sit at a table with books and papers before them, engaged in discussion. Behind them, the walls are lined with bookcases and covered with colorful art.

Our Mission

Located within the College of Arts and Sciences at the University at Buffalo, the Center for Disability Studies has both academic and community goals. It seeks to promote and be a forum for academic research and teaching in the  humanities and social sciences and to facilitate the integration of people with disabilities into the community.

Disabled people lead rich, interesting lives and often we think of them only in terms of their disability.

Michael Rembis, director of the Center for Disability Studies

About the Center

Students safely viewing the solar eclipse.

Our program is focused on providing students and interested community members with broad exposure to innovative methodological and theoretical approaches to studying disability primarily in the humanities, with extensive collaboration in the social sciences, education, law, and the health sciences.

What We Do

Buildings at South Campus.

In addition to our interdisciplinary Masters degree in Disability Studies, and our Graduate Certificate in Disability Studies, the UB Center for Disability Studies works to integrate disability related content into the curricula at all levels and into community programming and education. From teaching to speaking, hosting speakers to supporting student research, the Center for Disability Studies works to expand understanding of disability on campus and in the community.

Research

two students from the 1960s bowling.

For more than a decade, the UB Center for Disability Studies has conducted an oral history project that began with former residents of the West Seneca Developmental Center located near Buffalo, New York. The project has expanded to include a wide range of people with disabilities living in western New York.

Future Students

students walking through Founder's Plaza.

Through an interdisciplinary curriculum, this innovative program provides students with the knowledge base and theoretical means to question conventional understandings of the “normal” body and mind.