With the recent development of increasingly sophisticated technologies that can aid individuals with disabilities (e.g., high-tech prostheses, brain implants, exo-skeletons, and transplantation surgeries, among others), the modes through which disability is represented in mainstream and alternative cultures have changed substantially.

This conference aims to interrogate those changes and look forward to the future of critical disability studies.

The purpose of the conference is not simply to reform existing paradigms concerning disability, but to investigate and assist in the creation of new models that constitute a critique of a model still dominated by biomedical perspectives and by limited attempts to extend existing legal rights to people with disabilities. We aim to take a critical and creative perspective in thinking through the potentialities of multiple and diverse embodiments and practices.
We welcome abstracts from scholars, artists, community activists and practitioners from a diverse range of disciplines.

Topics that may be considered include, but are not limited to:
• Representations of disability
• Prosthetics and the prosthetic metaphor
• Biotechnology and disability
• Disability in creative arts practice
• Gender, sexuality and disability
• Critical disability studies
• Race and disability
• Disability and colonial and anti-colonial practices
• Biotechnological, health and/or disability imaginaries
• The politics of disability

Please send an abstract (up to 250 words) by 30th May 2016, including a short biography (up to 50 words) to genderbodyhealth@gmail.com