(NAME-MCE) Pacific Rim Conference on Disabilities--May 2009

[Steve Brown]

It's my pleasure to share with you parts of the program at the 2009 Pacific
Rim Conference on Disabilities with which I'm involved below and attached.
We are all aware it's harder to travel this year, but hope we'll get to see
some of you here in Honolulu in May.
Steve
Pacific Rim Conference on Disabilities



Working Toward a Brighter Future

May 4th-5th, 2009

Hawai‘i Convention Center

Honolulu, HI



DISABILITY STUDIES AND CULTURE:



Disability studies is us looking out at the world and seeing how that looks
to us

—Simi Linton, Advocate, Scholar and Author



Disabled Literature

Story-telling for the Home Enrichment of Language and Literacy (SHELLS):
Impacts on

Disability Culture: Global and Diverse

Multicultural Issues in Disability Studies

A Way Forward: Presenting a Postmodern Framework for Disability Studies

“Blind vacancy”: Sighted Culture and Voyeuristic Historiography in Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein

“Teaching of Disability Studies in India: Role of Distance Education”

Disability and Fatherhood—perspectives and experiences of fatherhood for
disabled men in New Zealand/Aotearoa

Disability Nationalism in Crip Times



Featured Speaker:



Robert McRuer is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at The
George Washington University, where he teaches queer theory, disability
studies, and cultural studies. He is the author of Crip Theory: Cultural
Signs of Queerness and Disability (NYU, 2006) and The Queer Renaissance:
Contemporary American Literature and the Reinvention of Lesbian and Gay
Identities (NYU, 1997). He is co-editor, with Abby L. Wilkerson, of Desiring
Disability: Queer Theory Meets Disability Studies, which appeared as a
special issue of GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies (2003). His
articles have appeared in PMLA, Radical History Review, Genders, the Journal
of Medical Humanities, and numerous other locations.



POST-CONFERENCE CAPACITY BUILDING INSTITUTE—ADDRESSING DIVERSITY AND
DISABILITY IN THE POSTSECONDARY CLASSROOM: UNIVERSAL DESIGN AND BEYOND:



Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Ala Moana Hotel—Honolulu, Hawai‘i
9:00am-4:00pm

Purpose: To increase the knowledge and skills of attendees who have an
interest in improving postsecondary instruction to learners from diverse
backgrounds, including learners with disabilities.

Focus: The integration of Universal Design for Instruction, Mentoring, and
Multicultural Awareness.

Who Should Attend: People with an interest in postsecondary education such
as faculty, disability support personnel, high-school personnel,
administrators, people with disabilities and other diverse learners, and
their advocates.

Featured Speakers: Paula Sotnik, University of Massachusetts, “Cultural
Brokering and Multiculturalism”; Emiliano Ayala, Sonoma State University &
Bryan Cook, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, “Universal Design for Learning”

Activities will also include a mentoring panel, hands-on multiculturalism
and Universal Design applications, and group discussion.

All Participants Must Be Registered
$25.00 Registration Fee

For more information, please contact: Velina Sugiyama
Center on Disability
Studies
1776 University Avenue, UA 4-6
Honolulu, HI 96822
Tel:
808-956-5688
Fax: 808-956-7878
Email: velina at hawaii.edu

Students with Disabilities As Diverse Learners: www.ist.hawaii.edu



INDEPENDENT LIVING (co-sponsored by the Statewide Independent Living Council
of

Hawai’i):



Living with a disability is a fact of life that almost everyone will
experience, either personally, or through their family or friends.
Presentations will explore many questions relating to independent living:

How does a person with a disability live independently in today’s society?

What does independent living mean?

Who defines an individual’s independence?

What do we want independent living to be in the 21st century?

How are perceptions of choice about independent living defined?

How does independent living change across and within cultures, space, time,
disability experiences?



Featured Speakers:



Johnny Crescendo is a disability civil rights singer and songwriter, born in
1952 in Salford UK. Johnny founded the Direct Action Network (DAN) in 1993,
an organization that uses public demonstrations and non-violent civil
disobedience to increase the awareness and liberation of disabled people.

Johnny also works for ADAPT. As well as being a performer, Johnny is a
philosopher and teacher and one of the most experienced trainers and
consultants on disability issues, designing and leading courses and
workshops on topics such as Arts and Disability, Empowering Disabled People
Inclusive Education and the Social Model of Disability.



Joseph Ray has been an advocate for Disability rights for twenty years. He
is of Zuni descent and is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, Village of
Paraje, New Mexico. He is the Founder, Executive Director, and Board
President of Native American Independent Living and serves on the Board of
Directors at the Pueblo of Laguna Housing Authority. He has been a systems
change advocate for disability for twenty-two New Mexico tribes and is very
active in outdoor, and wheelchair sports and recreation.



DISABILITY RIGHTS:

Bringing Human Rights Intersections into the Movement for Gender Equality,
Disability Rights, and Justice.



Presentations will address poverty reduction strategies, policies and best
practices in international, national, regional and community settings.
Others will activism in Japan, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities, Persons with Disabilities in War Zones, feminist perspectives,
community development, Inclusive Education and the right to education.



Featured Speakers:



Andrew J. Imparato is the first fulltime President and Chief Executive
Officer of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), a
national non-profit membership organization for the political and economic
empowerment of all people with disabilities based in Washington, DC. With
more than 120,000 members, AAPD is the largest cross-disability membership
organization in the U.S.



Loretta Ross is the National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color
Reproductive Health Collective. She is one of the most influential movers
and shakers in the world today in the area of equality and justice. Loretta
is a political commentator for Pacifica News Service, and has appeared as a
political commentator on Good Morning America, The Donahue Show, The Charlie
Rose Show, CNN, and BET.



Fernando Cruz is a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation of Southern Arizona
is presently employed as a Reintegration Program Coordinator for Arizona
Bridge to Independent Living (ABIL), working with residents of nursing homes
in the Phoenix and West valley area.



YOUTH ADVOCACY AND LEADERSHIP:



The future of the social justice, self-determination and advocacy rests with
our youth and emerging leaders with disabilities. Our topical area will
discuss youth involvement in the following areas:

International Youth Issues (social justice, disability rights,
self-determination and self advocacy in the world.

Emerging Leader Initiatives: Empowerment issues and ACTION PLANS

Youth Leadership and Political Involvement

Self Advocacy around the globe.

Best Practices in Centers for Independent Living

Featured Speakers:



Amber Smock is a youth and women’s disability rights organizer. She is the
Youth Leadership Coordinator for Access Living, the independent living
center for Chicago. She is also a co-coordinator for Chicago ADAPT and
consults with the ADAPT National Youth Summit. She is a co-founder and
member of Feminist Response in Disability Activism (FRIDA), a grassroots
action group of women with disabilities and Deaf women. In 2008, Amber
received the Founder’s Award from the Chicago Foundation for Women in
recognition of her emerging leadership, and with the award money has been
meeting and organizing with women with disabilities around the US and in
South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Amber has a severe hearing loss and
grew up oral in mainstream schools. At the age of 20 she became involved
with the Deaf community, began learning American Sign Language, and now uses
sign language interpreters and videophones at work.



Bethany Stevens is a Center of Excellence for Sexual Health Scholar at
Morehouse School of Medicine. She holds a Juris Doctorate, a Master’s of Art
degree in Sexuality Studies, and is a member of the California Bar
Association. During the drafting of the Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities, Stevens served as a reporter and representative for
Rehabilitation International. She was a representative of the youth of
America at two international conferences on disability rights in Norway in
2004. She has been published by UNICEF, the United Nations and the Review of
Disability Studies. Along with a scholastic focus, Stevens is a
self-described uppity crip activist who has engaged in various community
organizing endeavors. The most successful of which was the direction of
campaign to open a two million dollar accommodated testing center at the
University of Florida. Her professional focus is the amelioration of people
with disabilities in sociocultural settings, with a special interest in
media representation, public policy and sexuality.



To attend the Leadership Academy, contact Nathan Say at nesay at hawaii.edu



2ND ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL FORUM:

SECURING THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES: ERADICATING POVERTY:



“...poverty may be defined as a human condition characterized by sustained
or chronic deprivation of the resources, capabilities, choices, security and
power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and
other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights” (United
Nations Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, 2001)



People with disabilities live in poverty all over the world. The World Bank
estimates that 75% of persons with disabilities on earth live in poverty.

This forum will be designed to address issues of poverty, justice and global
reform in relation to facilitating the rights of individuals with
disabilities to obtain equal access to global resources.



Featured speakers:



Andrew J. Imparato is the first fulltime President and Chief Executive
Officer of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), a
national non-profit membership organization for the political and economic
empowerment of all people with disabilities based in Washington, DC. With
more than 120,000 members, AAPD is the largest cross-disability membership
organization in the U.S.



Joakim Peter is Director of the Chuuk Campus of the College of
Micronesia-Federated States of Micronesia and one of only a handful of
educated and employed Micronesians with disabilities.



Loretta Ross is the National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color
Reproductive Health Collective. She is one of the most influential movers
and shakers in the world today in the area of equality and justice. Loretta
is a political commentator for Pacifica News Service, and has appeared as a
political commentator on Good Morning America, The Donahue Show, The Charlie
Rose Show, CNN, and BET.





To register call: 808 956-7539 and ask for Charmaine or go directly to
www.pacrim.hawaii.edu

Download registration, and fax to (808) 956-7878.

END
-- 
Steven E. Brown, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Center on Disability Studies, www.cds.hawaii.edu
1776 University Ave., UA4-6
University of Hawai‘i
Honolulu, HI 96822
808-956-0996
808-956-7878 (fax)

Co-Founder
Institute on Disability Culture
http://web.mac.com/disculture
Movie Stars and Sensuous Scars: Essays on the Journey from Disability Shame
to Disability Pride:
http://web.mac.com/disculture/Site/Movie_Stars_and_Sensuous_Scars.html