Sept. 26: A Better Life for Whom? Queerness, Disability, and the Foundation for a Better Life

Presented by Alison Kafer
Wednesday, September 26
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
DHSP Building
1st Floor Auditorium
1640 West Roosevelt Road
Chicago, IL

In the years since 9/11, philanthropic organization Foundation for a Better Life has funded a public service campaign touting "community values" and "character development," arguing that these values will result in a "better life" and future for the United States. Representations of disability and illness play a large role in this campaign, with a majority of billboards praising individuals with disabilities for having the strength of character to "overcome" their impairments. Using insights from feminist and queer theory, feminist studies scholar Alison Kafer offers a crip reading of these billboards, tracing their adherence to a neoliberal politics of sentimentality and their potential subversion by disability activists.

Refreshments will be provided. The lecture is free and open to the public.

About the Speaker
Alison Kafer is an assistant professor of feminist studies at Southwestern University where she teaches courses on feminist and queer theory, activism, and disability studies. In 2006-2007, she was an Ed Roberts Visiting Scholar in Disability Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and she now serves on the board of the Society for Disability Studies. Her work on gender, disability, and sexuality has been published in the Journal of Women's History and several anthologies, including Gendering Disability and Feminist Interventions in Ethics and Politics. She is currently co-editing an anthology with Susan Burch on the intersections between Deaf Studies and Disability Studies for Gallaudet University Press.

Access
Sign Language Interpreters and Real Time Captioning will be provided. To request other access accommodations, please notify Sarah Rothberger at:
312-996-1508 (v)
312-996-1233 (TTY)
fax: 312-996-0885
e-mail: sr22@uic.edu