About Us
A Brief History of the UB Center for Disability Studies
The UB Center for Disability Studies (CDS) is a recent product of the singular cooperation between the UB College of Arts and Sciences and People Inc., a regional service provider to people with disabilities in the Western New York area. Eager to encourage both academic research and community education, People Inc. proposed the idea of a center that would bring together its resources and those of the University at Buffalo, the most comprehensive university in the State University of New York system. An agreement creating CDS as a three-year project was signed in October, 2009.
In its initial phase, CDS will host a visiting scholar over the course of three semesters during 2010 and 2012. Currently serving as visiting scholar is Professor Michael Rembis, who received his doctorate in History at the University of Arizona. Professor Rembis teaches in the Department of History, while consulting with People Inc. on the development and expansion of its Museum of disability History and its annual film festival. During this three-year period, both UB and People Inc. are seeking resources to sustain the CDS on a permanent basis and expand it into a program with a pedagogy, curriculum and a multidisciplinary faculty to be composed of both existing UB faculty and new appointments from Humanities and Social Science disciplines.
The Need for Disability Studies at the University at Buffalo
Disability Studies and disability-related research programs are quickly becoming prominent features at many of the most forward thinking colleges and universities. Currently more than 50 such programs exist at institutions located across North America and the United Kingdom. The proliferation of these programs reflects a definite trend toward the incorporation of persons with disabilities, as well as disability-related issues and research, into the larger society and the burgeoning body of academic research that explores human variation, cultural conceptions of what is normal and normative, and exposes systems of power and oppression that are based on those conceptions. With the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and medical and technological advancements enabling persons with disabilities to live longer, more fruitful and productive lives, Disability Studies and disability-related research programs are certain to continue to grow and expand, as society seeks to incorporate millions of people with disabilities who seek to participate fully in American life.
The University at Buffalo is uniquely positioned to become a leading center for Disability Studies in the United States. The UB has a long, rich history of disability-related programs and research that have attracted an increasing number of researchers from around the world to Buffalo. The UB faculty and staff have also shown a long-standing commitment to cross-disciplinary research and inquiry, especially in cultural, ethnic, gender, and area studies, and in strengthening the university’s ties with the larger community.
So, too, is UB’s partner, People Inc., a major regional force in assisting people with disabilities to live and work in the community. People Inc.’s commitment to an expanded understanding of disability is seen in its sponsorship of an Annual Film Festival that explores both the lives of people with disabilities and the attitudes that they and able-bodied Americans bring to their encounters with one another. In addition, People Inc. has founded a Museum of disAbility History, which exists in virtual form on the Web and as a traditional museum in Williamsville, New York. Dedicated to the history of disability, this endeavor has no counterpart in the world thus far. The museum was founded on the belief of its founders that a greater knowledge of the variability of cultural conceptions of disability across centuries and cultures would facilitate the integration of people with disabilities into the community as equals and as citizens.
Philosophy and Goals of the Center for Disability Studies
The new disability studies program at UB will focus 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. The disability studies curricula and research agenda will be driven by an interdisciplinary that seeks to reconstruct and evaluate the broad and diverse experiences of marginalized populations. The Center for Disability Studies will focus on disability as a category of analysis and a lived embodiment and emphasize the diverse experiences of disabled people in various times and locations.
The Center for Disability Studies at UB is working to identify courses, faculty, and departments, as well as community activists willing to incorporate a new intellectual approach into the education of disabled and non-disabled students, faculty, clinicians, researchers, and community members, with the ultimate goal of creating a Disability Studies Program that will raise awareness and identify and transform oppressive institutions and environments. The Center for Disability Studies at UB seeks to examine how addressing disability in its full complexity can promote the participation, self-determination, and equal citizenship of people with disabilities in society.
The program remains open to any student, faculty, administrator, or community member who is committed to studying the complex nature of disability, with all of its implications, as well as more pragmatic measures that can be taken to minimize the negative personal and social consequences of disability. A particular strength of the program will be its incorporation of a diverse array of faculty, students, and community members from the humanities and the social sciences. The program will explore issues that cut across impairment, clinical, social, cultural, ethical, legal, educational, and policy perspectives on disability.
The members of the Center for Disability Studies recognize the inherent tensions that exist between the therapeutic, medical, and social models of disability; we hope to use these differences as a means of developing a Disability Studies Program at UB that integrates a broad knowledge base and does not perpetuate long standing divisions.
