Vulnerability and Violence: Disabled Bodies Protest in the Global South

• In Event: 14.044 - Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: 14.044-19 - Diversity and Social Change in Curriculum Studies

Abstract

This paper examines the neo-colonial nature of the United Nation’s Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) for countries in the global South by exploring the origins and implication of the document. Then an analysis of photographs taken of disabled protesters in the global South further exemplifies the UNCRPD’s failings to understand the lived experiences of disabled people in these countries. The ways in which protesters use the disabled body’s vulnerability and deviance as tools for social change are examined within a framework of post-colonial studies and embodiment theories as related to disability.

Author

• Katie Roquemore, Syracuse University