DIScourse:  philosphy and disability working group.

The DIScourse is a virtual working group organized by Sara Purinton and  S.P. Leeds, run in partnership with the Society for Philosophy and Disability, dedicated to workshopping papers and reading texts related to the philosophy of disability and disabled philosophy. If you are interested in joining the listserv or attending a session, please reach out to me  (purinton@sas.upenn.edu) or S.P. (spl56@georgetown.edu). The DIScourse is taking a hiatus this fall but we will return in spring 2026.

Previous Sessions

Summer 2025

- 6/3 Curative Violence: Rehabilitating Disability, Gender, and Sexuality in Modern Korea, Introduction

- 6/17 Curative Violence, Chapter 1

- 7/1 Curative Violence, Chapter 2

- 7/15 Workshopping paper on disability identification by TJ Buttgereit

- 7/29 Curative Violence, Chapter 3

- 8/12 Curative Violence, Chapter 4

- 8/26 Curative Violence, Chapter 5 & Conclusion

Fall 2024

- 9/30 Robert Hartman, “Virtues that Mitigate the Deprivations of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” 

- 10/7 AB Sicilia, "Oppression, Agency, and Depending on Others"

- 10/21 Bobbi Cohn, "Gaslighting-Up: Fighting Ableist Fire with Fire"

- 11/18 Chris Weigel, "Lying as Respect in Family Caregiving for People With Dementia"

- 11/25 Nate Whelan-Jackson, "More than Merely Present: Mobile Maps and Agency in the City"

- 12/2 August Gorman,  "Neurodiversity and the Ethics of Access"

Fall 2023

- Logan Smilges, "TransCrip Critique: On Negativity and the Ableism of Trans-antagonism." 

- George Estreich, "Tlön, Uqbar, ChatGPT."

- Corinne Lajoie, "Learning to Notice Inaccessibility, Transforming Ableist Habits."

- T. Virgil Murthy "Emotive Atypicality."

- David Wasserman "Who Needs a Definition of Disability?"

- Guido Cassinadri & Marco Fasoli "Rejecting the Extended Cognition Moral Narrative: A Critique of Two Normative Arguments for Extended Cognition."

Spring 2023

- T. Virgil Murthy, "The Belief Model of Substance Use Disorder." 

- Andrea Pitts, "Gloria E. Anzaldúa on Identity, Pain, and Disability Within and Beyond Philosophy."

- Sean Aas and Dana Howard, "Defining Disability and the Political Distinctiveness of Disablement."

- Adi Goldiner, "From Disability Accommodations to Universal Modifications: Lessons from the Peculiar Case of Extended Time on Exams."

- Katherine Sepulveda, presentation on the intersection of disability and political theology.

- Sarah Mann-O'Donnell, "Touch and Blindness from Molyneux to Freud."

- Joe Stramondo, "Problematic Motivations" (from book manuscript with Stephen Campbell).

- Kevin Timpe, "Disabilities’ Impact on Well-being."

- Ian Kidd, "Bright-Siding, Truthfulness, and Experiences of Illness."

-  Ally Peabody Smith, "Self-advocates, in-group advocacy, and friends-in-common: assessing potential advocates for non-speaking intellectual disability."

- Katie Eyer, "Claiming Disability."

Fall 2022

- Corinne Lajoie, "Crip Phenomenology and the Disorientations of Access."

- Johnathan Flowers, "Disability as a Cultural Problem."

- Bella-Rose Kelly, "Concealing Gender Non-Conformity: A Trans Phenomenology of Disability."

- Joel Michael Reynolds, "Philosophy of Disability: An Introduction (Book Proposal)."

- Erica Bigelow, "What a Shame She ‘Went Mad’: Righteous Anger, Madness, and Disability (In)Justice."

- Quill Kukla, "What Counts as a Disease, and Why Does It Matter?" 

- Adam Cureton, "Pity, Self-Pity, and Disability."

- Jennifer Hawkins. Presentation responding to Elizabeth Barnes' conception of adaptive preferences.