This Disability Studies MA course is aligned with the CCDS and as such has a particular focus on cultural representations of disability.
Disability Studies is a relatively new but rapidly growing academic discipline, as illustrated by the international proliferation of courses, events, networks, journals, book series, monographs, edited collections, and so on. Though drawing on this progress substantially, the Disability Studies MA at Liverpool Hope University differs from similar programmes insofar as it places particular emphasis
21/05/2026
Autocritical Disability Studies - Book Series - Routledge & CRC Press Routledge & CRC Press Series: This new book series represents both a contribution to, and a departure from, the academic field of critical disability studies. According to some concerns abou
15/05/2026
As Editor-in-Chief, I am pleased to announce that the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Disability Studies now has 65 articles live, some of which are open access:
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Disability Studies Abstract. Disability can be thought of as the most universal of all identities. Whatever our gender, race, religion, nationality, class, or sexuality, we m
New Beginnings in Culture and Disability Studies:
A Multiple Launch Event
5 June, 2026, Liverpool Hope University
10am-4.30pm, EDEN Arbour Room, EDEN Building, Childwall Campus
The Centre for Culture and Disability Studies (CCDS) invites you to attend the 2026 multiple launch event.
This year marks new beginnings for Dr Saul Leslie’s debut novel, A Working Title I Want to Change, and Dr Liam Owens’s Disability Sport MA, as well as Prof David Bolt’s monograph, The Playground Model of Disability; edited volume, Cultural Stations of Disability; and The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Disability Studies.
There will be a dozen presentations across the day, including CCDS core members Dr Erin Pritchard, Dr Leah Burch, and Dr Emma Swai; senior colleagues such as our Vice Chancellor, Prof Penny Haughan; and Pro Vice-Chancellor, Prof Atulya Nagar; and special guests Dr Owen Barden (Trinity College Dublin), Dr Maryam Farahani (University of Liverpool), Dr Felipe Moreira (University of Leicester), Dr Alison Wilde (Northumbria University), and Dr Nina Michelle Worthington (Canterbury Church Christ University).
To attend this free event it is necessary to book via our online store:
https://store.hope.ac.uk/product-catalogue/faculty-of-education-and-social-sciences/school-of-social-sciences/events/new-beginnings-in-culture-and-disability-studies-a-multiple-launch-event
This is a face-to-face event but we hope to record and share it via the CCDS YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/
New Beginnings in Culture and Disability Studies:
A Multiple Launch Event
Centre for Culture and Disability Studies, Liverpool Hope University
EDEN Arbour Room/Lounge, EDEN Building, Childwall Campus, L16 9JD
5 June, 2026
10am Welcome from the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Prof Atulya Nagar
10.15 Monograph Launch, Prof David Bolt, introduced by Dr Ana Bê Pereira
The Playground Model of Disability: Dis/Honesty Tropes in Contemporary British Sociocultural Representation
11-11.15 Refreshments
11.15 Course Launch, Dr Liam Owens
Disability Sport MA
11.45 Volume Launch, Chaired by Dr Erin Pritchard
Cultural Stations of Disability: A Moment in Discourse
- Dr Emma Swai, A New Testament: Changing Positionality, Changing Interpretation
- Dr Maryam Farahani, Figure Skating Pace and Olympic Policy: The Problematics of Performance Normativity Cultures in Women’s Sport
- Dr Felipe Moreira, Dury and Dwoskin: Disabled Gazes and De-Normalised Sociocultural Archives
- Dr Erin Pritchard, Cultural Stations of Dwarfism: From Little Helpers to Burney Nesbitt
1pm Lunch (not provided)
2pm Novel Launch, Dr Saul Leslie, introduced by Head of Humanities, Prof Stephen Kelly
A Working Title I Want to Change
2.45 Refreshments
3-4.15 Encyclopedia Launch, Chaired by Dr Leah Burch
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Disability Studies
- Dr Alison Wilde, Disability and Activism
- Dr Owen Barden, Participatory Historical Research with People with Learning Disabilities
- Dr Nina Michelle Worthington, How Disability Engages UK Theatre Practice
- Dr Leah Burch, Disability and Hate
4.15-4.30 Reflections from the Vice Chancellor, Prof Penny Haughan
Attention Disability Studies MA students, past, present, and future! You are especially welcome to join us for this free event:
New Beginnings in Culture and Disability Studies:
A Multiple Launch Event
5 June, 2026, Liverpool Hope University
10am-4.30pm, EDEN Arbour Room, EDEN Building, Childwall Campus
This year marks new beginnings for Saul Leslie’s debut novel, A Working Title I Want to Change, and Dr Liam Owens’s Disability Sport MA, as well as Prof David Bolt’s monograph, The Playground Model of Disability; edited volume, Cultural Stations of Disability; and Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Disability Studies.
On culture and disability studies, there will be a dozen presentations across the day, including CCDS core members Dr Erin Pritchard, Dr Leah Burch, and Dr Emma Swai, and special guests such as our Vice Chancellor, Prof Penny Haughan, Dr Owen Barden (Trinity College Dublin), Dr Maryam Farahani (University of Liverpool), Dr Felipe Moreira (University of Leicester), Dr Alison Wilde (Northumbria University), and Dr Nina Michelle Worthington (Canterbury Church Christ University).
To attend the free event it is necessary to book via our online store:
https://store.hope.ac.uk/product-catalogue/faculty-of-education-and-social-sciences/school-of-social-sciences/events/new-beginnings-in-culture-and-disability-studies-a-multiple-launch-event
This is a face-to-face event but we hope to record and share it via the CCDS YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/
Interrogating the ethics of visual methods: A critical disability studies critique of photovoice by Danielle Kohfeldt, David Bolt, and Robert Majzler.
Photovoice is widely regarded as a critical participatory method that promotes social change by centering the visual narratives of marginalized communities. This paper offers a methodological and epistemological critique of photovoice grounded in critical disability studies, examining the ethical tensions that arise from its reliance on visibility as a pathway to recognition and social change. Drawing on the concept of ocularnormativity, we argue that photovoice reproduces dominant hierarchies of knowledge by relying on a postpositivist epistemology that equates visual imagery with legitimacy, and by relying on visual tropes of dysfunction, decay, and debility to signify harm. These tropes rely on disability aesthetics to make oppression legible to a wider audience, but with ethical consequences rarely acknowledged in the literature. Using cripistemology as a guiding framework, we interrogate how photovoice, as a participatory visual method, risks reinscribing ableist ideologies. Rather than simply reform the method, we ask researchers to imagine how cripping photovoice may better align the method with the aims of disability justice. This paper contributes to ongoing conversations about the ethics of representation and accessibility in qualitative research.
It is now freely available here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590260126000275?via%3Dihub
16/04/2026
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Disability Studies: Now Live
With Prof David Bolt as Editor-in-Chief, alongside an international gathering of Area Editors, as well as a dedicated team at Oxford University Press, the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Disability Studies has now gone live.
This encyclopedia provides current, peer-reviewed, trustworthy articles. It opens with 60 extended articles, including 5 that are open access.
Access the content here:
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Disability Studies Abstract. Disability can be thought of as the most universal of all identities. Whatever our gender, race, religion, nationality, class, or sexuality, we m
Top 10 Most Popular CCDS YouTube Films
1. Robert McRuer, “Crip Times,” 4,875 views, posted 1 Sep. 2017.
2. Owen Barden, “Posthumanism and Disability,” 3,784 views, posted 20 Mar. 2020.
3. Michael Stokes, “All You Zombies,” 2,328 views, posted 4 Oct. 2017.
4. Ella Houston, “The Representation of Disabled Women in Anglo American Advertising,” 2,270 views, posted 25 Oct. 2019.
5. Peter Beresford, “From Psychiatry to Disability Studies and Mad Studies,” 1,865 views, posted 2 Jul. 2015.
6. Lennard J. Davis, “Sorrowless Lamentation,” 1,633 views, posted 22 Nov. 2017.
7. Lennard J. Davis, “The Stories We Tell: The Americans with Disabilities Act After 25 Years,” 1,625 views, posted 6 May 2015.
8. Erin Pritchard, “The Social and Spatial Experiences of Dwarfs in Public Spaces,” 1,441 views, posted 14 Feb. 2020.
9. David Bolt, “Cultural Disability Studies in Education,” 1,060 views, posted 25 Jul. 2018.
10. Margaret Price, “An Unstable and Fantastical Space of Absence,” 982 views, posted 15 Dec. 2016.
These videos and many more are available on the CCDS YouTube channel. The popularity report is correct on 27 March 2026.
New Beginnings in Culture and Disability Studies:
A Multiple Launch Event
5 June, 2026, Liverpool Hope University
10am-4.30pm, EDEN Arbour Room, EDEN Building, Childwall Campus
The Centre for Culture and Disability Studies (CCDS) invites you to attend the 2026 multiple launch event.
This year marks new beginnings for Saul Leslie’s debut novel, A Working Title I Want to Change, and Dr Liam Owens’s Disability Sport MA, as well as Prof David Bolt’s monograph, The Playground Model of Disability; edited volume, Cultural Stations of Disability; and Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Disability Studies.
On culture and disability studies, there will be a dozen presentations across the day, including CCDS core members Dr Erin Pritchard, Dr Leah Burch, and Dr Emma Swai, and special guests such as Dr Owen Barden (Trinity College Dublin), Dr Maryam Farahani (University of Liverpool), Dr Felipe Moreira (University of Leicester), Dr Alison Wilde (Northumbria University), and Dr Nina Michelle Worthington (Canterbury Church Christ University).
To attend the free event it is necessary to book via our online store:
https://store.hope.ac.uk/product-catalogue/faculty-of-education-and-social-sciences/school-of-social-sciences/events/new-beginnings-in-culture-and-disability-studies-a-multiple-launch-event
This is a face-to-face event but we hope to record and share it via the CCDS YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/
30/01/2026
LUP have made an issue of the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies free to access. I am proud to say that JLCDS is in its 20th volume, so I am sure you will enjoy reading this excellent general issue:
Contents | Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies 17, 1 The article examines how resonance has anchored deaf self-representation in the eighteenth century and the present. Through an interdisciplinary framework that foregrounds Deaf and sound studies in the context of the eighteenth century, the article ...