The Third Annual Conference of the European Society for Disability Research was held in Lisbon, Portugal the 3rd – 4th of July 2014 at the Instittuto Superior de Clencias Socials e Politicas Polo Universitario da Ajuda. The conference, which focused on “Exploring Disability: Epistemologies, Policies and Politics,” was organized by Paula Pinto, Research Associate at DRPI.
The conference has attracted about 100 people from throughout the world. DRPI’s Marcia Rioux gave the keynote address, entitled “Rights, Justice, Power: Paradoxes and Paradigms Run Deep”.
At the conference, Paula Pinto released the final report of the DRPI study she has carried out over the past two years. Entitled “Developing a Framework of Human Rights Indicators in the field of Disability” and authored by Maria Engrácia Cardim, Paula Campos Pinto, Diana Teixeira, the research led a holistic monitoring of the current status of disability rights along three strands: critical analysis of law and policy; social representations; daily life experiences of persons with disabilities, in Portugal. The research offers a holistic picture that enables us to examine how human rights are being complied, what are the key factors in the process and how citizens experience them. On the basis of this knowledge, and a literature review on human rights and disability rights indicators, a preliminary framework of qualitative and quantitative indicators to monitor the CRPD was presented and discussed.
The aim of the conference is to present and discuss theoretical and empirical innovative research focusing on a variety of research issues, which include the following topics but is not limited to them:
- Disability, policy and politics
- Advocacy, disability activism, and the voice of persons with disabilities
- Disability rights and the UN Convention
- Theoretical and conceptual developments on disability
- Emancipatory research methods and applied research
- Gender, sexuality and embodied experiences
- Quality of life and social participation
- Representations of disability in literature, media, film and art.