“The Geo-Politics of Disability” at Temple University

The Institute on Disabilities at Temple University presents
Spring 2010 Lecture Series
“The Geo-Politics of Disability”

Debility, Capacity, and Deleuze
Jasbir Puar
Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Rutgers University

Wednesday, February 3, noon to 1:30 P.M.
1810 Liacouras Conference Suite
Liacouras Walk, Temple University Main Campus

Professor Puar will analyze concerns related to the disability rights movement's efforts to call for inclusion based on normative, nationalist criteria of participation. Her presentation will draw upon the works of theorists of the corporeal such as Massumi, Deleuze, and Ahmed to imagine alternative modes of becoming.


Entangling the Discourse of Choice: “Assisted dying” and representations of severe disability
Kateřina Kolářová
Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies, Charles University in Prague

Monday, February 8, 2:00-4:00
1810 Liacouras Conference Suite
Liacouras Walk, Temple University Main Campus

Professor Kolářová critiques the discourse of individual choice that shapes the debate on assisted dying. The discourse of choice calls upon specific heteronormative as well as ableist notions to re-configure notions of sociality, relationality, responsibility, and care. Case studies include German legislation regarding the “patient’s will,” British media coverage of the “voluntary death” of a young man, and the Spanish film The Sea Inside.


The Dilemma of Doing Human Services for Pay
Wolf Wolfensberger
Professor Emeritus, Syracuse University

Wednesday, April 21, noon to 1:30 P.M.
1810 Liacouras Conference Suite
Liacouras Walk, Temple University Main Campus


People with disabilities are served by organized agencies that hire and pay people–their employees–to do the serving. This fact is virtually taken for granted by everyone involved, even though it has not always been so, and it raises a number of troubling problems, such as conflicts of interest. This presentation will try to bring these various dilemmas to consciousness, and also point out how paid human services workers can address the dilemmas in their own lives, and “validate” their paid human service.

For information & accommodations, contact:
Brian Zimmerman
215-204-1356 (voice/TTY)
brian.zimmerman@temple.edu