Disability Studies MA

04/09/2026

I have written a second edition of my 2019 book, Cultural Disability Studies in Education: Interdisciplinary Navigations of the Normative Divide. It has been rewritten throughout, with additional chapters and many new sections. If you are interested some of the content is now freely available:

Cultural Disability Studies in Education unites cultural disability studies and disability studies in education in recognising education as a discourse between educators and students who examine how disability is represented from academic disciplines and curricular to language, theory, narrative, an...

21/08/2026

Here at Liverpool Hope University, we are preparing for the 14th cohort of the Disability Studies MA.

The course was launched at a CCDS conference in 2013, attended by some of the most eminent figures in the field.

Since then we have met the best students each year.

Just this year, 2026, Divina Alex, Peter Collins, and Fran Zerva have all published work they started on the Disability Studies MA.

Onwards…

19/08/2026

Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies

Volume 20 Issue 3

Special Issue: Space for Interpretation - Reclaiming Disabled Power in Narratives of Belief

Guest Editors: Naomi Lawson Jacobs, Krysia Emily Waldock, and Emma Swai

JLCDS is available from Liverpool University Press, online and in print, to institutional and individual subscribers; it is indexed by Scopus and Web of Science; it is also part of the Project MUSE collection to which the links below point.

Research Articles

Introduction: Space for Interpretation
Emma Swai, Krysia Emily Waldock, and Naomi Lawson Jacobs
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/998134

Disability and the Sacred: Religion and the Ethics of Regard in Claire Cunningham’s Disability Artistry
Julia Watts Belser
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/998135

“How Can I, Unless Someone Guides Me?”: A Dyslexic Autoethnography Exploring Barriers Constructed by Bible Reading Expectations
Zoe Strong
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/998136

Toward an Inclusive Theology: Disability Narratives in Arab American Muslim Communities
Majd Subih
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/998137

The Making of a Blind Bhakti Poet: Sūrdās inside and outside the Bhakti Hagiography
Aniket Ojha
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/998138

Power in Whose Hands? Issues around Power in the BSL Sign Language Bible Translation Project
Hannah Lewis
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/998139

Comments from the Field

Autism, Cripping Management, and Calling Bu****it in Higher Education
Peter Collins
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/998140

A One-Legged Dancer Comes to Cambodia
Lawrence Shapiro
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/998141

Book Reviews

Andrea García-Santesmases, El cuerpo deseado: la conversación pendiente entre feminismo y anticapacitismo.
Constanza López Radrigán
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/998142

Nicole Eugene, Narratives of Narcolepsy in Everyday Life: Exploring Intricacies of Identity, Sleepiness, and Place.
Sarah M. Parsloe
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/998143

Colin Stewart, Flid.
Mark Paterson
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/998144

Tanya Titchkosky, Elaine Cagulada, Madeleine DeWelles, and Efrat Gold, DisAppearing: Encounters in Disability Studies.
Rebecca Porter
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/998145

25/06/2026

We now have an Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Disability Studies playlist on the CCDS YouTube channel, which gives introductions to some of the articles:

Dr Alison Wilde, Disability and Activism. This presentation was par...

01/06/2026

I am pleased to report that the second edition of Cultural Disability Studies in Education is now in press. This book is a set text on the Disability Studies MA, specifically for the Disability & Disciplines module.

I am grateful for the endorsements of my eminent colleagues, Prof Tanya Titchkosky (University of Toronto) and Prof Nicola Martin (London South Bank University).

I am also grateful to Fran Zerva, who as well as being my academic support worker and a graduate of the Disability Studies MA, has created the artwork for the front cover of the new edition.

For more information:

Cultural Disability Studies in Education unites cultural disability studies and Disability Studies in Education in recognising education as a discourse between educators and students who examine how disability is represented across academic disciplines and curricular to language, theory, narrative,....

01/06/2026

Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies

Volume 20 Issue 2

JLCDS is available from Liverpool University Press, online and in print, to institutional and individual subscribers; it is indexed by Scopus and Web of Science; it is also part of the Project MUSE collection to which the links below point.

Research Articles

Literary Action as Cure: Colonial Modernity and Disability Aesthetics
Nilanjana Bhattacharya
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/991317

Down Syndrome Representation in Jesse Ball’s Novel Census (2018)
Benjamin Fraser
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/991318

Cripping Time, Creating Community: Form and Affect in Molly McCully Brown’s The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded and Diamond Sharp’s Super Sad Black Girl
Kaitlin Hoezler
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/991319

Difficult Patients, Difficult Poems: Madness and the Rhetorics of Difficulty
Drew McEwan
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/991320

Dysfluent Messengers: Angelic Aphasia in the Novels of B. Catling
Victor Rees
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/991321

‘Demi-Autistic, Genetically Speaking’: Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake and the Aspergian Loop
Holly Thompson
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/991322

Comments from the Field

Climate Crisis and Disability: An Urgent Call for Inclusion and Action
Divina Maria Alex
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/991323

Centre for Culture and Disability Studies: 15th Anniversary Symposium, 30 May 2025, Liverpool Hope University, UK
Frantzeska Zerva
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/991324

Book Reviews

Scott Herring, Aging Moderns: Art, Literature, and the Experiment of Later Life.
Arianna Introna
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/991325

Nicole Eugene, Narratives of Narcolepsy in Everyday Life: Exploring Intricacies of Identity, Sleepiness and Place.
Anne Martin
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/991326

Emma Sheppard, Chronic Pain, B**M and Crip Time.
Vickery Stamp
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/991327

Shivani Gupta, No Looking Back.
Vidya Vishwakarma
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/991328

21/05/2026

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:

Abstract. Disability can be thought of as the most universal of all identities. Whatever our gender, race, religion, nationality, class, or sexuality, we m

14/05/2026

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 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/

12/05/2026

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