Disability arts and culture as public pedagogy

Abstract

This article considers the implications of a disability arts, culture and scholarship series ‘The Unruly Salon’, undertaken at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver in Canada, which ran from January to March 2008. It asks how and whether the encounter of this Series with its diverse audiences makes a lasting contribution to the reshaping of education at the University of British Columbia in terms of curriculum, pedagogy, place, space and culture. It argues that The Unruly Salon Series is but a cornerstone in the groundwork for the ‘global citizenship’ to which the University’s Trek 2010 policy and mission statement aspire. The question is not only: what have the disabled and non‐disabled participants of this timely and creative series learned from about working within the ‘fragile spaces between impairment and disability’?, but also the article asks: how will Canada’s third largest public university learn so as to transform its intellectual, social culture and built environment for prospective and existing students, faculty and staff with disabilities? The article concludes that such social change advantages the impaired and non‐disabled alike.