This panel aims to bring transnational feminist disability studies perspectives to bear on contemporary conversations around U.S. imperialism and war, such as indigeneity, environmental violence, de/colonialism, disability in the global South, and state-sanctioned violence, to name a few.

As scholars such as Jasbir Puar, Nirmala Erevelles, and Eunjung Kim have brought to the fore of our critical consciousness, the U.S. and other imperialist nations have their hands in wars where disability is no longer only a casualty of violence but also often intentionally produced as a war tactic.

Since disability studies is a field largely developed in a Western context, in what ways are current approaches in disability studies inappropriate or insufficient to address the nuances of disability and U.S. imperialistic war violence? What critical silences exist in the U.S. feminist disability studies practices? What theories and critical methodologies to we need to intervene in these silences and engage in transformative justice? Who is already doing this critical work and how we can we uplift and build upon those voices? How might a transnational feminist disability analytic direct us toward practices that facilitate coalition building beyond U.S. borders as a method of accountability and transformative justice?

In asking these questions, this panel aims to trouble the U.S.’s (and U.K.’s) institutional and critical hegemony in feminist disability studies knowledge production and consider modes of trans/national belonging that can direct us to more just practices.

Possible topics might include, but are not limited to, the intersection of disability with:

Transnational feminist disability studies
Disability studies and transformative justice
U.S. imperial violence and disability
The disability rights movement in an international context
Gaps in discourses on disability, imperialism, and war
New approaches to disability and transformative justice

To apply, please send a 250-word abstract and CV to ah1087@english.rutgers.edu by February 13, 2019.