Including Disability in Social and Cultural Anthropology: From disciplinary absence to enabling environments

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Literature reviewOver the last thirty years the interdisciplinary field of disability studies has intervenedin a host of disciplines and university courses including social work, sociology,education and medicine (e.g., Morgan and Roulstone, 2012; Slee, 2018; Hunt,2022).My research seeks to make social and cultural anthropology inclusive for disabledanthropologists in pedagogy, curriculum, action research and reflective practice; foracademics, researchers and students. I want to explore the theoretical reasons foranthropology's lack of engagement with disability and disability studies, to empiricallyresearch and to create more inclusive practices, spaces and communities fordisabled anthropologists and social anthropology students interested in researchingdisability. I adopt social and cultural anthropology as a disciplinary case study: toraise wider issues about disability, access, equity, and challenging academic ableism(Dolmage, 2017)The core aims of my project are situated within the recognized need for a reflexiveturn against ableism in anthropology between the reflexive turn of post-colonialanthropology (which critiques the white anthropologist's gaze on postcolonial spacesas proposed by Asad, 1979) and feminist anthropology (see Avishai et al., 2012which aims to bring the perspective of the female researcher into anthropologicalresearch to target the male gaze). Whilst both poles of knowledge bring fruitfuldisciplinary reflexivity and new perspectives of doing anthropological research thatdiffered from the body of a classical white male ethnographer; these poles do notpay attention to the body of the disabled researcher. Therefore, I will aim to centrethe role of a disabled researcher whose 'bodymind' (Price, 2015) is different to theclassical anthropologist. My approach will pay more attention to an intersectionallens as disability traverses gender, sex, ethnicity and transnational lines. Moreover,my approach will illuminate the ableist nature of anthropological research and thediscipline, it will consequently focus on the concept of 'ableist normativity' (Campbell,2008). Thus, this research project will call for a new reflexive turn within thediscipline that goes beyond the aforementioned traditions and poles of expertise.The core aims of my project are situated within the recognized need for a reflexiveturn against ableism in anthropology between the reflexive turn of post-colonialanthropology (which critiques the white anthropologist's gaze on postcolonial spacesas proposed by Asad, 1979) and feminist anthropology (see Avishai et al., 2012which aims to bring the perspective of the female researcher into anthropologicalresearch to target the male gaze). Whilst both poles of knowledge bring fruitfuldisciplinary reflexivity and new perspectives of doing anthropological research thatdiffered from the body of a classical white male ethnographer; these poles do notpay attention to the body of the disabled researcher. Therefore, I will aim to centrethe role of a disabled researcher whose 'bodymind' (Price, 2015) is different to theclassical anthropologist. My approach will pay more attention to an intersectionallens as disability traverses gender, sex, ethnicity and transnational lines. Moreover,my approach will illuminate the ableist nature of anthropological research and thediscipline, it will consequently focus on the concept of 'ableist normativity' (Campbell,2008). Thus, this research project will call for a new reflexive turn within thediscipline that goes beyond the aforementioned traditions and poles of expertise.