Here is the draft program of the upcoming edition of Philosophy, Disability, and Social Change: Philosophy, Disability, and Social Change 6 (#PhiDisSocCh6). Registration for the conference will open soon. Check back frequently!

Philosophy, Disability, and Social Change 6 (#PhiDisSocCh6)

January 28-30, 2026

(All times are EST = GMT – 5hr; CET – 6hr; CST + 1hr; PST + 3hr)

Wednesday, January 28, 2026

10:00-10:10 Welcome to #PhiDisSocCh6

Shelley Lynn Tremain (BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY) and Melinda Hall (Central Florida)

10:10-12:10 Panel: The Politics of Identity and Identification

Caroline Christoff (Muskingum), “The Normativity of Neurodiversity: How Atypical Behavior Impacts Identity”

August Gorman (Oakland), “Am I the Problem? Reframing Perceived Burdensomeness in Suicide Prevention Ethics”

Clarissa Müller-Kosmarov (Warwick), “Phenomenal Fluctuations and Bodily Uncertainty: Toward a Phenomenology of Episodic Disability”

Chair: Jane Dryden (Mount Allison)

12:10-12:15 Break

12:15-1:35 Panel: Allies, Animosities, Besties, and Betrayal

Élaina Gauthier-Mamaril (Sheffield), “Politics of Urgency: A Dialogue Between Philippine Nakem Philosophy and Crip Theory”

Kristin Rodier (Athabasca), “Under Feminist Cover: Disability, Fatness, and the Politics of the Grotesque”

Chair: Tracy Isaacs (Western)

1:35-2:05 Break

2:05-4:00 Workshop: Forging Alliances, Trans Philosophy and Philosophy of Disability

Participants: C Dalrymple-Fraser (Toronto)

                            Gen Eickers (Osnabrueck)

                            Tamsin Kimoto (Washington at St. Louis)

                           Perry Zurn (American)

Facilitator/Chair: Andrea Pitts (Buffalo)

Thursday, January 29, 2026

10:00-10:05 Welcome to Day Two of #PhiDisSocCh6

Shelley Lynn Tremain (BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY)

10:05-12:05 Panel: On the Birth of Foucault and the Abnormal

Will Conway (Stony Brook), “’To Kill the Vanquished’: Rousseau at the Threshold of Biopolitics”

Stephanie Jenkins (Oregon State), “On Being Incorrigible”

T. Virgil Murthy (Carnegie Mellon), “Addiction as a Way of Life: Foucault, Friendship, and Possibilities of Disabled Closeness”

Chair: Shelley Lynn Tremain (BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY)

12:05-12:10 Break

12:10-1:30 Panel: Eugenic Histories and Presents

Tommy Curry (Edinburgh), “Not of MAN: The Ethnological Foundations of Racial Difference in the 19^th Century”

John Henry Reilly (Duquesne), “American Eugenics, Early Psychometrics, and the Formation of Learning Disabilities”

Chair: Erica Bigelow (Washington)

1:30-2:00 Break

2:00-4:00 Symposium: Digital Power: AI, Ableism, Racism, and Fascism

Raymond Aldred (McGill), “Confessions of an Indigenous AI Frankenstein”

Mich Ciurria (Public Philosopher), “Technofascism, Crisis Epistemology, and Disaster Ableism”

Johnathan Flowers (California State at Northridge), “Technoableism and the Curative Imaginary”

Damien Williams (North Carolina at Charlotte), “Fascist Bullshit: How ‘Generative AI’ Enacts and Enables Authoritarianism and Eugenics”

Chair: Fintan Mallory (Durham)

Friday, January 30, 2026

10:00-10:05 Welcome to Day Three of #PhiDisSocCh6

Shelley Lynn Tremain (BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY)

10:05-12:05 Panel: Anarchist and Marxist Influences and Fascist Confrontations

Robert Chapman (Durham), TBA

Nic Cottone (Michigan State), “Capitalism, Reification, and the Naturalization of Disability”

Cal Nelson (Duquesne), “Anarchist Contributions to a General Theory of Visible and Invisible Marginalization”

Chair: Maeve McKeown (Groningen)

12:05-12:10 Break

12:10-1:30 Panel: Being, Knowing, Doing

Ada Jaarsma (Mount Royal) and Bailey Szustak (Mount Royal), “Cripping, Making, Teaching”

Corinne Lajoie (Western), “Disability Accommodations, Epistemic Injustice, and Harms to Self-Trust”

Chair: Élaina Gauthier-Mamaril (Sheffield)

1:30-2:00 Break

2:00-4:00 Roundtable: Naming, Resisting, and Transforming the Ableist Mechanisms and Practices of Philosophy

Participants: Karin Boxer (Independent)

                           Emily R. Douglas (Vanier)

                           Sofia Jeppsson (Umeå)

                          Julie Maybee (Lehman/Graduate Center, CUNY)

Facilitators: Johnathan Flowers (California State at Northridge)

                           Melinda Hall (Central Florida)

4:00 End of Philosophy, Disability, and Social Change 6 (#PhiDisSocCh6)