IDRAC 2019: November 1 @ 8:30 am SLT, Reading the Personal and the Social in Disability Studies and Trauma Studies

Anne-Marie Callus with Arleen Ionescu

On Friday, Nov. 1, two presenters, one from Malta and the other from China, will be presenting together at Virtual Ability’s IDRAC conference. Their session begins at 8:30 am SLT (Pacific time).

Anne-Marie Callus is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Disability Studies, Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta. Her main research interests are the empowerment of persons with intellectual disability and cultural representations of disability. She lectures on these topics as well as on inclusive education and the rights of disabled persons.

Arleen Ionescu is Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Her major research and teaching interests are in the fields of Critical Theory, Memory Studies, Holocaust Studies and Trauma Studies. She has published widely on trauma. At present, she is co-editing and with Maria Margaroni (University of Cyprus) a volume entitled Arts of Healing: Cultural Narratives of Trauma (forthcoming 2020).

In their joint presentation, they will discuss the focus on the personal and the social in Trauma Studies and Disability Studies respectively. They argue that these different focal points enable the two areas of study to complement each other and to show that experiences of disability or trauma are never purely personal or purely social. Thus, it is by attending to both aspects that the complex nature of such experiences can be fully appreciated.

This event will be live-streamed via Virtual Ability Inc.'s YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCecFbqrNpnAbfaEohz8HIhQ/live.