Disability Studies Conference 2024

The conference will take place between 3-5 September 2024 on the University of Leeds campus, with options for remote attendance also available.

The Centre for Disability Studies is launching a new biennial Disability Studies Conference that creates a space for researchers, practitioners, policy makers and activists from around the world to share and debate ideas, research and challenges in and for Disability Studies. 

A full conference programme will be published soon. Keynote speakers and their talk titles are detailed below.

Keynote Speakers

Miro Griffiths

Resistance Practices and Imaginations: Young Disabled People’s Participation in Disability Activism Across Europe

Dr Miro Griffiths is a Lecturer in Social Policy and Disability Studies at the University of Leeds and Co-Director of its Centre for Disability Studies. He holds several advisory positions on disability policy across government departments, civil society organisations and private enterprises. 

Marie Sépulchre

Recentring Freedom in our Work for Disability Rights and Justice

Dr Marie Sépulchre is Senior Lecturer at the School of Social Work at Lund University in Sweden. Her book Disability and Citizenship Studies (Routledge 2021) unpacks the struggle for citizenship of Swedish disability activists. Her current work centres disability in higher education, and disabled people's right to freedom as non-domination in relationships of power and dependency.

Sami Schalk

Black Disability Politics

Dr Sami Schalk is an Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race and Gender in Black Women's Speculative Fiction (Duke University Press, 2018) and Black Disability Politics (Duke University Press, 2022). Her interdisciplinary research focuses broadly on disability, race, and gender in contemporary American literature and culture.

Bob Williams-Findlay

The Present and Future of Disability Politics

Bob Williams-Findlay has been a leading disability activist in Britain for thirty year, including being Chair of the British Council of Disabled People and a co-founder of Disabled People Against the Cuts. He has appeared on TV and been a keynote speaker at numerous conferences. He has written two books, the most recent Disability Praxis, and a range of articles relating to Disability Politics and Social Oppression.

Booking and Attendance Information

The Call for Papers closed on 30 April 2024. The deadline for presenter inclusion in the programme schedule is Friday 5 July 2024.

There are in-person and remote attendance options for attending the conference. Bookings are made through the University’s Online Store. Booking closed on Wednesday 31 July 2024.

Conference Fees

The different conference fees are listed below. The standard/concessionary rate fees include attendance at all in person events, refreshments and access to the conference app (and for 3 months after the conference).

The virtual conference fee provides access to the conference app, to pre-recorded presentations and material, access to the plenary sessions (live and on the conference app) and to the networking and discussion facilities on the app (and for 3 months after the conference).

The concessionary rate is for students, unwaged, those without institutional/employer funding, and participants travelling from lower-income countries (countries that appear in the ‘least developed’, ‘low income’ and ‘lower middle income’ lists on the OECD website).

Registration type                          Fee

Standard rate                                  £450

Concessionary rate                         £325

Virtual rate                                       £100

Virtual concessionary rate             £50

Notifications of cancellations sent by email to cdsconference@leeds.ac.uk by 31st July will receive a full refund, minus a £50 cancellation fee. Cancellations received after 31st July will not be eligible for a refund.

Members of the University of Leeds should contact cdsconference@leeds.ac.uk for internal rates.

Accomodation

Rooms in Storm Jameson Court (B&B £53 per night) can be booked through the University Conference and Events service booking page. Rooms are available on a first come first served basis. There are a number of accessible rooms with a variety of adaptions. Please send any questions or queries about University accommodation to confadmin@leeds.ac.uk. For more details about Storm Jameson Court and the facilities available please see the conference services webpage.

The University has secured preferential rates with a number of hotels in the city:

Radisson use rate code – 184235, £120, up to 10 rooms per date.
Malmaison Code: CLOTH900, 10% off any room rate, T&Cs.
Doubletree Hilton Hotel £95.00 bb for up to 9 people. Proceed to Hilton booking site, enter city and dates, click on the “special Rate” “corporate account” Enter 112994145

VisitLeeds can provide information and support if you would prefer to make your own accommodation arrangements.

Conference Information

Venue

The conference is taking place in the Esther Simpson and Newlyn Building on the Leeds University campus. Lunch is available in the Refectory in the Leeds University Union. University accommodation is in the Storm Jameson Building.

Information about the specific rooms in the Esther Simpson and Newlyn Building, as well as links to the Accessible guide pages for the Esther Simpson Building, Newlyn Building and Leeds University Union can be found on the University’s Room Information map.

Keynote Sessions

Global RealTime Captioning will be providing live verbatim human-generated captioning/Speech-to-Text support for the keynote sessions. The keynote sessions will also be recorded and available on the conference app shortly after the conference.

Parking on Campus

During core hours (7am-5pm) only permit holders and pre-booked visitors are permitted to park on campus in the orange zone (on a first come first served basis). 

Please contact cdsconference@leeds.ac.uk to arrange a pre-booked place. Parking is charged at £7 per day and you will need to provide your vehicle registration details as there is an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system operating. Blue badge parking in the orange zone must also be booked as a code is provided to validate the access before departure.

There are blue badge parking bays outside Esther Simpson (3) and Newlyn (2), as well as other blue badge parking across campus (see map). There is no charge for blue badge parking on the Leeds University controlled space for this conference. Please note the roads around the conference venue are public highways with some restrictions for permit holders and are monitored by Leeds City Council.

There is a Google map showing the location of blue badge parking spaces in the city centre and blue badge parking information provided by the local city council.