Composing Disability is a biennial conference series sponsored by George Washington University’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Office of Disability Support Services, English Department, and University Writing Program.
The inaugural event, titled Composing Disability: Writing, Communication, Culture, was held in November 2011. You can view the event program here.
The second installment of this event series, Composing Disability: Diagnosis, Interrupted, is scheduled for April 3-4 2014 in the Jack Morton Auditorium of GW’s School of Media and Public Affairs. This event will offer a series of panel presentations, keynote speeches and performances that take as their focus the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (published May 2013), examining the fraught relationship between the diagnostic work of the medical industry and the embodied lives of disabled people.
Featured Presentations by
Ellen Forney, author of Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me
Ann Cvetkovich, author of Depression: A Public Feeling
Karen Nakamura, author of A Disability of the Soul
Katie Rose Guest Pryal, author of A Short Guide to Writing about Law
The event will begin at 1:00 pm on Thursday, April 3, will run through Thursday evening at 10:00 pm, and will continue from 9:30-5:00 on Friday, April 4.
Composing Disability will be fully interpreted in ASL
Free registration is available here
