Ciis Public Programs & Performances

Disability is often described as a tragedy, a crisis, or an aberration even though 1 in 5 people worldwide have or will have a disability. Why is this common human experience rendered exceptional? Disability studies scholar Jennifer Natalya Fink argues that this originates in our families. Weaving together stories of members of her own family with socio-historical research, in her latest book, All Our Families, Jennifer illustrates how the eradication of disabled people from family narratives is rooted in racist, misogynistic, and antisemitic sorting systems inherited from Nazis. Inspired by queer and critical race theory, Jennifer calls for a lineage of disability: a reclamation of disability as a history, a culture, and an identity. In this episode, autistic Mestiza, critical educator, and disability studies scholar-activist Sara M. Acevedo joins Jennifer for a conversation that challenges us to reconnect disability within the family as a means of repair toward a more inclusive and flexible structure of