My weekly events this week are in the UK & the US. Again, we don’t endorse these events, and they are things I come across in my travels round the internet, so these are not the only events going on my any means!

UK – US – Calls for Papers

UK:

SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT
Tuesday September 14th 5pm – Douglas Jefferson Room, School of English, University of Leeds
Advance notice that the poet and critic Michael Davidson will be speaking in the School of English on “Pregnant Men: Modernism, Disability, and Biofuturity in Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood”

Professor Davidson teaches at the Department of Literature, University of California, San Diego. His research interests are in the areas of Modern Poetry, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies and Disability Studies. His most recent book is Concerto for the Left Hand: Disability and the Defamiliar Body (2008)

ALL WELCOME

For further details contact Bridget Bennett: b.k.g.bennett AT leeds.ac.uk or Stuart Murray: s.f.murray AT leeds.ac.uk

What is Disability Hate Crime?: A Historical Exploration of Crimes Involving Disabled People

A Seminar Presentation by Dr. Alex Tankard

Hosted by the Centre for Culture & Disability Studies, Faculty of Education, Liverpool Hope University

Time: 2.15pm – 3.45pm
Date: Wednesday, October 13th 2010

The 2007 CPS Policy for Prosecuting cases of Disability Hate Crime states that ‘It is important to make a distinction between a disability hate crime and a crime committed against a disabled person because of his/her perceived vulnerability’ (9).
Under the social model of disability, is this distinction helpful, harmful, or simply meaningless? What is the difference between assaulting a disabled person while making ‘a derogatory or insulting comment about disabled people’ (8), and assaulting a disabled person because social structures and cultural representations have led you to believe that they cannot defend themselves or obtain justice? Should the first be regarded as a politicised crime, and the second as politically neutral?
In 1884, in the Wild West mining camp of Leadville, Colorado, a disabled man shot a nondisabled man and then pleaded self-defence. The details of this obscure and complex case meet none of the criteria outlined by the 2007 Policy, and yet the disabled participant and contemporary press reportage exposed aspects of the judicial system that marginalised and discriminated against citizens with physical impairments.
In this seminar, Dr. Tankard will use the 1884 incident to ask whether the 2007 Policy’s determination to distinguish between ‘hate crimes’ and crimes committed against vulnerable people perpetuates confusion about the real causes and meanings of disability. Dr. Tankard will argue that the most insidious and intractable social injustice may be found not in the open ‘hostility’ and name-calling classed as hate crime, but in the social structures that disable people who have impairments and render them appealing targets for crime of any kind. Ultimately, she will ask whether the CPS’s decision to politicise one set of crimes while depoliticising others illustrates the continuing failure of official and public discourses to comprehend truly the social model of disability.

The CCDS Research Forum is free of charge, but attendees are required to register by sending an email to Heather Barker dbsw AT hope.ac.uk, using “Alex Tankard” as the subject line.

EUROPEAN CONFERENCE FOR SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH

Inaugural conference: Social Work and Social Care Research – Innovation, Interdisciplinarity and Impact

website

St Catherine’s College, Oxford

23rd-25th March 2011

The first of a major annual series, the conference will bring together researchers and research users from across Europe and beyond to present and exchange research ideas, findings, developments and applications. The inaugural conference aims to provide a forum open to all who are engaged and interested in social work and social care research, including service users. Check out their website for more information. Please note that abstracts must be submitted by midnight on 20th September 2010.

US (via Disability Law Center):

International Forum on Disability Management
Location: Los Angeles, California; Date(s): September 20-22, 2010.

2010 National Self-Advocacy Conference
Location: Kansas City, Missouri; Date(s): September 23-26, 2010.

Accessing Higher Ground – Accessible Media, Web, and Technology Conference

Location: Boulder, Colorado; Date(s): November 15-19, 2010.

Calls for Papers:

Festival of International Conferences on Caregiving, Disability, Aging, & Technology
Abstract Submission Deadline: December 1, 2010.

Special Issue of Disability Studies Quarterly on the Topic of Mediated Communication

Abstract Submission Deadline: December 15, 2010.