ANUSANDHAN
Disability Research Forum
Disability Studies is an interdisciplinary field of academic enquiry that understands and examines disability as a social, cultural and political phenomena. In a sense, this academic discipline radically alters the traditional perception of disability as a physical or cognitive deficit that hinders and even incapacitates the individual from performing normative life functions. It is this conception of the disabled body as the inevitable locus of ‘deficit’, ‘lack’, and ‘inadequacy’, that Disability Studies seeks to challenge by evolving an epistemology of inclusion that could restore the humanity and dignity of disabled people and promote their equitable presence in society.
Disability is not just a problem of an individual body to be treated by health and social care professionals, it is also very much a social stigma that breeds prejudice, discrimination and exclusion. Medicine and its allied fields may attempt to fix the person but they say little about the failure of the social context to accommodate corporeal differences, exonerating society from any form of culpability in the shaping of the experience of disablement.
Disability Studies attempts to do so by critically examining the social, cultural and political processes through which disabled people are systematically marginalised in a predominantly ableist society.
While materialist studies reveal the exclusionary nature of an ableist society creating databases for the formulation of public policies, literary and cultural Disability Studies strike at the very root of ableist thinking by systematically deconstructing the discursive processes through which disabled people have been categorically othered. Disability Studies in this way exercises a profound impact not only on the constitution of disability scholarship but also on the very life of disabled people themselves paving the way for the realisation of the much-cherished egalitarian ideal of a truly inclusive society.
Predictably, there appears to be, across the globe, a growing interest in Disability Studies. However, Disability Studies in India is still in a gestative state of development.
It is in this context that CDRT’s endeavours to promote and popularise Disability Studies as a legitimate field of intellectual enquiry within the Indian academia gathers meaning and significance.
SUB-UNITS
Jigyasa
The Disability Studies Conclave
The Disability Studies Conclave organises a range of academic programmes from foundational certificate courses and FDPs to international conferences on disability studies, fostering a deeper understanding of disability and its complexities. It attempts to create an ecosystem that facilitates collaborative learning and interaction between students and faculty from across the country and internationally renowned scholars in the field like Lennard J. Davis, Tom Shakespeare, Nicholas Watson, and others.
Paricharcha
The Discussion Forum
The Discussion Forum offers a space for open dialogue and critical discourse on disability and its social dynamics. The student-led discussions encourage a nuanced understanding of the perspectives, challenges, and experiences of disabled individuals and foster a sense of allyship and shared purpose among students towards the goal of building a more inclusive society.
Anveshan
The Disability Research Council
The Disability Research Council at CDRT is a platform for intellectual exploration and academic growth in the field of disability studies. It aims to encourage undergraduate students to explore and contribute towards disability research by providing them with rigorous training and mentorship. The Centre is dedicated to expanding the knowledge base of disability studies in India and strives to function as a nodal institutional site to produce, systemize and disseminate academic knowledge about disability.
