Two Day workshop at kashmir university

Event: Two-Day Workshop at Kashmir University

Organised by: Centre for Disability Research and Training (CDRT) in association with Department of English, University of Kashmir

Venue: University of Kashmir

Date: 10th & 11th July, 2023

The Centre for Disability Research and Training (CDRT), Kirori Mal College signed an MoU with the Department of English, University of Kashmir for the setting up of a separate Centre for Disability Studies in KU, envisioned as a unique amalgamation of technological innovation in science as well as epistemological intervention in language and humanities.

Professors and officials pose with documents at a Two-day Workshop on Disability Studies organized by the Department of Social Work, University of Kashmir, held in July 2023.

The MoU was signed under CDRT’s Project Sankalp, which aims to assist educational institutions across the country to establish similar centres of academic engagement and Sensitization. As a part of this MoU, CDRT conducted a two-day workshop on Disability Studies in Kashmir University on the 10th and 11th of July 2023, with the following objectives in mind –

  1. to debunk stereotypes associated with disability and promote disability sensitization among people in general.
  2. to promote disability studies as an academic discipline and highlight the need to engage students in research on disability studies.
  3. to understand the relevant themes in the emerging academic discipline and encourage critical engagement on the themes of disability.
Audience listens attentively as professor someshwar sati addresses a full hall during the Two-day Workshop on Disability Studies at the University of Kashmir, with panelists seated on stage facing attendees.

Vice-Chancellor Prof Nilofer Khan chaired the inaugural session of the workshop and talked about the University’s role in creating a truly inclusive space for equal academic progression of all the students. Prof. F. A. Masoodi (Dean Academic Affairs, KU), who was the guest of honour, also spoke about the workshop’s theme and its importance for academic institutions. Prof Someshwar Sati (Coordinator, CDRT), in his keynote address, described the introduction of Disability Studies into undergraduate and postgraduate courses across the country as the need of the hour.

The workshop was divided into nine modules that discussed the following themes:

  1. how disability is constructed on the binaries and stereotypes created by non-disabled folks and operates on the “othering” of disabled people.
  2. how the ability of a person to perform various functions can be widened with the help of inclusive technology as well as social acceptance.
  3. how misrepresentation in literature, cinema and other modes of narrative fiction shape our ways of thinking.
  4. the intersection of disability with gender identity and the roles of accessibility, visibility and inclusion in reconceptualizing disability.
speakers and attendees sit around a conference table during a discussion session at the University of Kashmir, held as part of the Disability Studies workshop, with mics and notes in use.

The resource persons for the workshop were Prof Someshwar Sati, Prof Shilpa Das from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and Prof Baniprata Mahanta from Banaras Hindu University. The  workshop was successful in introducing disability studies as an emerging fertile ground for new  research and innovation that can help make Institutes of Higher Education safe and inclusive for all. 

A wide shot of a diverse group of about 30-40 people, mostly young adults, seated around a large U-shaped wooden table in a well-lit conference room, engaged in a discussion

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Centre for Disability Research and Training

| Contact Us: cdrt@kmc.du.ac.in |