The Centre for Global Disability Studies (CGDS) is a new research centre established in 2020 and housed at University of Toronto Scarborough. CGDS serves as a catalyst to bring together faculty members, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and others conducting anti-ableist, intersectional, and interdisciplinary social science and humanities disability studies research from across all three University of Toronto (UofT) campuses and broader community. CGDS supports transdisciplinary research in disability studies and promotes a transnational, anticolonial approach to advancing the field of disability studies, with a strong commitment to interdependence, accessibility, and disability justice. Seeking to improve the campus climate for researchers and audiences with disabilities across UofT, CGDS aspires to foster critical conversations that advance other ways of thinking about disability.
Learn more about current courses in Disability Studies at UofT: https://globaldisabilitystudies.ca/courses-in-disability-studies-at-uoft/
Our Mission
Supporting justice-oriented anti-ableist research
Through grants, community-building, and academic networks across traditional academic disciplines
Promoting global, transnational, anticolonial disability studies
Embracing many ways of knowing and being
Advancing disability access
For all UofT academic events, for everyone on campus, for researchers with disabilities, and for the communities our research serves
Our Values
Accessible
Who is part of the conversation matters.
Inter- & Trans-disciplinary
Arts, critical scholarship, and advocacy working together to address ableism, build communities of access and nurture disability culture and community.
Anti-Ableist
critical scholarship that confronts ableism and lifts activist voices.
Transnational & Anti-colonial
Identifying intersecting systems of oppression entwined with ableism across diverse global locations.
Global
de-centering the dominance of Eurocentric perspectives in disability studies.
Want to become a member of the CGDS?
Email us at cgds.utsc@utoronto.ca with your name, faculty, year of study and a short write-up (2-3 sentences) outlining your connection to the field of disability studies.
Membership is open to all University of Toronto faculty, students and researchers.
Plain Language*
The Centre for Global Disability Studies (CGDS) is a group of people who read and think together. Our group started at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Our group is for people who teach, study, or work at any of the University of Toronto (UofT) campuses. Our group wants to read and think about disability studies and visit people around the world to learn about what life is like for people with disabilities in different places. We want to make disability studies better by talking with people in different countries and talking with people who live in places where a different group has political power. We want to depend on each other and not trying to be the strongest or the best all by ourselves. We want everything we do to be as accessible as possible so that everyone can take part and be a leader. We want everything we do to be based on the concept of disability justice.
Our group does three main things. First, we help people read and think together, even if they work in different parts of the university. And we can give money to people at UofT to do exciting projects. Second, we hold events or help other people at UofT hold events that are about disability studies and disability justice. Third, we will speak up for disability access.
*Simple English or Plain Language is an access practice. By rephrasing specialized language and long sentences, Plain Language presents information in an easier-to-read way. Learn more about Plain Language here.