Activist Affordances: How Disabled People Improvise More Livable Worlds

This roundtable and book launch provides an occasion to engage, discuss and celebrate Dr. Arseli Dokumaci’s new book, Activist Affordances: How Disabled People Improvise More Habitable Worlds (Duke UP, 2023). The event will begin with short presentations by roundtable participants, followed by a conversation among the panelists with the author, moderated by members of the Access in the Making (AIM) Lab. Following a break, we will reconvene for a broader Q&A with all in attendance.

The roundtable will be followed by a book launch and reception with food and drinks. Please bring cash to purchase a copy of the book. All proceeds of the book sales will be donated to earthquake survivors in Turkey.

Accessibility information: The roundtable event will be bimodal (Zoom + in person), and ASL interpretation will be provided. The SHIFT center is wheelchair accessible. For in person participants, please note also that masks will be mandatory in the seminar space to keep people safe. The reception and shared food will take place in a separate space, where those in attendance can unmask to eat, drink, and socialize. If you have any other access needs, please email info@accessinthemaking.ca at least ten days prior to the event.

Roundtable bios:

Arseli Dokumaci is an interdisciplinary scholar and media-maker. Her scholarly and creative work lies at the crossovers of disability studies, performance studies and medical anthropology. Arseli is the director of AIM Lab, and the author of Activist Affordances: How Disabled People Improvise More Livable Worlds (Duke UP, 2023).

Faye Ginsburg is a Professor of Anthropology at NYU Arts and Science, and Co-Chair of the NYU Center for Disability Studies. She is an American anthropologist who has devoted her life to the exploration of different cultures and individuals’ styles of life.

Alison Kafer is associate professor of feminist studies, and is the author of Feminist, Queer, Crip (Indiana, 2013). Her work has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including Disability Studies Quarterly, Feminist Disability Studies, the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, Sex and Disability, and South Atlantic Quarterly.

Jonathan Sterne is James McGill Professor of Culture and Technology at McGill University. He has written widely on the history of sound and other topics, and is currently at work on projects on sound and AI, and impairment and music technology. Publications include Diminished Faculties: A Political Phenomenology of Impairment (Duke UP, 2021); MP3: The Meaning of a Format (Duke UP, 2012), The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction (Duke UP, 2003). Visit his website at https://sterneworks.org

We acknowledge that this event takes place at Concordia University, which is located on unceded Indigenous lands. The Kanien’kehá:ka Nation is recognized as the custodians of the lands and waters on which we gather today. Tiohtià:ke/Montréal is historically known as a gathering place for many First Nations. Today, it is home to a diverse population of Indigenous and other peoples. We respect the continued connections with the past, present and future in our ongoing relationships with Indigenous and other peoples within the Montreal community.