Comment from the Field

Abstract

On encountering the initial for ideas, we were intrigued by the range of interdisciplinary and non-academic audiences to which this conference spoke. The call addressed activists, artists, academics, and practitioners, inviting them to get involved in a day of discussions on the broad themes of gender and disability. The conference and Disability, Asking Difficult Questions took place on Saturday 10 May 2014 and was hosted by the Humanities Research Institute (University of Sheffield), Gender Research Network (University of Sheffield), and the Disability Research Forum (Sheffield Hallam University). Within the context of this event, asking difficult questions entailed the careful unpicking of taken-for-granted norms and truths, the deconstruction of binary gender, compulsory heterosexuality, and compulsory ablebodiedness. A key focus for interrogating these mechanisms arose through a focus on intersectionality and the tensions and nuances that can arise across multiple and overlapping identifications, including disability, gender, race, class, and sexuality. An urgent question to emerge concerned how we can move towards genuine inclusion rather than simply enacting a kind of queer lip-service, as Alexa Athelstan phrased it in her paper exploring intersectional queer, femme, disabled identities. What inspired us particularly was the attempt to address the gap between academic research and its practical application for individual life worlds. This seems increasingly relevant in the current political climate in which cuts to social welfare enact a kind of tax on every aspect of disabled people's lives (Burnip). Events such as this provide the space for vital reimaginings, sharing and coalition/collaboration at a time of crisis. Furthermore, there was no keynote speaker, a decision taken to encourage a non-hierarchical ethos among participants. The organizers had also given a great deal of thought to access and participants were invited to engage with the theme of accessibility through an interactive graffiti installation on a reclaimed toilet door, as well as by writing comments on Post-It notes on the walls. Speakers were also encouraged to avoid jargon and maximize the accessibility of their papers. In addition, the conference was tweeted live, which facilitated the engagement of a broader online community. This was also a useful resource for indecisive delegates such as ourselves, who had to make tough choices throughout the day due to a full and exciting programme taking place between two rooms.Having chosen Hannah Patterson's workshop centred on the theme of Making Protest and Activism Accessible, we encountered the first pressing questions of the day. What is activism/protest? Is this activism? And who is included and who is excluded from more traditional forms of street-based protest? For one participant, activism was about putting yourself in places where you're not wanted and challenging expectations. Summing up the discussion, Patterson (who has worked for the past year as the NUS Disabled Students Officer) offered a reparative vision of the possibilities of subverting protest. Drawing upon her own experiences to illustrate the increasing criminalization of protest movements in the UK, and police violence faced by protesters, Patterson highlighted the need for activists to safeguard each other as they participate in and imagine new forms of resistance. This workshop provided us with some useful resources, not least by alerting us to the NUS activist mental health guide. From this discussion, then, emerged a reaffirmation of the variety of possible activisms, recuperating what counts as activism in a way that enabled us to challenge the sense of inadequacy, hierarchy, chauvinism, and masculinist culture that often presents sources of exclusion within activism.The subsequent panel was led by Peter Fuzesi and Melania Moscoso, who delivered two papers probing some of the ethical questions surrounding dominant narratives of disability, the language of rights, bodies, autonomy, and power. …