The Centre for Global Disability Studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough
Undergraduate Awards for Disability Studies
We are pleased to announce our 2025-2026 Undergraduate Award winners: Brandon Chan-Long, Lorraine Pan, and Arlo Grzyb-Reed! Read on for a description of their important work.
Brandon Chan-Long is a 4th-year Bachelor of Arts student double-majoring in Health Studies and Critical Studies in Equity & Solidarity (CSES) at the University of Toronto, St. George campus. His work is shaped by lived experiences of disability within his family and a commitment to disability justice and accessibility through a public health lens. Brandon was notably involved as a Research Assistant for the Mad Asian Creativity Symposium, which brought together scholars, activists, and artists to explore the intersections of Mad experiences, art, and the Asian cultural diaspora. He has also held roles at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, serving as a moderator in the MCAT Student Support Program and as a student mentor in the STEAM-D Program, where he supported students with disabilities and those from underrepresented backgrounds throughout their journeys as future health professionals. His coursework in disability studies has further grounded and informed this work.
The Disability Justice Award would support my research and help fund my graduate studies as I work toward advancing equitable healthcare.
I want to translate research into shorter waits, kinder care, and clinics that feel like open doors, not walls.
– Brandon
Arlo Grzyb-Reed(any pronouns) is a 4th year undergraduate student of History, Critical Equity Studies, and Material Culture and Semiotics. As a disabled scholar, their experience with disability justice and scholarship is deeply personal and interdisciplinary, including academic publications in journals like ROVE CSES and Material Merge, collaborative work across campus communities and committees, and the merging of scholarly and artistic practices in their work. This year, under the guidance of author Leanne Toshiko Simpson, Arlo is developing a novel manuscript that explores perspectives of disability and its relationships with grief, found family, and self-identity. If interested in future collaborations of creative disability justice, you can find Arlo at c.grzybreed@mail.utoronto.ca!
I am beholden to my disabled comrades at the University of Toronto, and all the work they do.
I hope to continue creating impactful work using my disabled brain and body, support my community, and help the people around me understand themselves and others in relation to their own identities.
– Arlo
Lorraine Pan(they/them) is a senior student specializing in Women and Gender Studies, minoring in Critical Studies in Equity and Solidarity. Their research work examines shared identities and collective action for social change, intersecting with gender, race, dis/ability, and (im)migration. Inspired by Alice Wong and Eli Clare, they engage in activism and writing to build transnational solidarity across East Asia and North America, advocating disability justice as a global struggle against ablism, racism and sexism. This year, they wrote “Solemn Hour: A Disabled Chinese Youth’s Confession to Gaza,” and presented it in a postcolonial studies class. In this work, they reflected on their lived experience as a disabled diaspora and their journey toward solidarity, hope, and collective resistance with the Palestinian community. Their work is also discussed in Insight Myanmar Podcast.
Through my work and lived experience, I’ve witnessed many issues within U of T’s accessibility system.
Although my work is grassroots, I believe deeply that supporting individuals is a vital part of advancing disability justice.
– Lorraine
The CGDS team is excited about the innovative work done by members of the undergraduate community that we have had the honour to support through the Undergraduate Awards in 2025-2026. We hope to continue funding vital projects and events in the future. Congratulations to our three award winners!
We are pleased to announce our inaugural 2024-2025 Undergraduate Award winners: Sara Hashemi, Catherine Dumé and Gabrielle Pittinger! Read on for a description of their projects.
Sara Hashemi (she/her) is a 5th year Bachelor of Science student majoring in Criminology and Psychology with a minor in Bioethics. Her research uses disability poetics to understand and express experiences of mental health to disrupt the narratives around “recovery” and “treatment” that advance a medical model of disability as well as illness narratives. Her community work with the Disability Justice Network of Ontario centers disability justice and aims to hear, document, and amplify the experiences of racialized people living with a disability.
As a recipient of the CGDS Undergraduate Award for Disability Studies, I hope to further my creative writing and research in disability arts and disability poetics. Specifically, this award will allow me to spend more time working on a piece around hermit crab essays and their role in disrupting linear expectations of healing – Sara
Catherine Dumé is a Bachelor of Arts student with a degree in political science and a double minor in history and writing and rhetoric. In 2019, Catherine started a disability blog about inaccessible spaces in Toronto. She subsequently went on to become the Accessibility Correspondent for The Varsity, with one of her pieces “How Accessible is Robarts” presented to top architect firms in Toronto and even became part of the reading list for a Critical Disabilities Studies course at UofT’s New College. These experiences led to Catherine co-founding and running the University of Toronto, Accessibility Awareness Club (U-TAAC), providing inputs on campus renovations and spaces, hosting the first accessibility-focused campus tour for incoming students with disabilities, and organizing the first Ableism in Classrooms Conference that brought together students, staff, and faculty on the issue of academic accessibility at UofT.
It is an honour to be recognized for my contributions and to be one of the first recipients of this award. Recognizing the efforts of student advocates within the disability community is important. After five years of advocacy and working with such passionate students, I have learned that accessibility is a pressing political crisis that requires not only listening to students with disabilities but also empowering them with the skills, knowledge, and opportunities to voice their concerns and impact positive change – Catherine
Catherine stands in front of a door smiling at the camera. She has shoulder-length black hair, and wears glasses and a mauve top.
Gabrielle Pittinger is a 4th year Bachelor of Arts student specializing in Women and Gender Studies. Her own lived experiences of pain and disability are reflected in her interdisciplinary approach to disability work. Gabrielle’s papers have been presented at three Women and Gender Studies seminars, the 2024 UofT Undergraduate Research Conference, and the Trans, Disability and Sapphic Knowledges (TDSK) Conferences. Her community work on campus as co-president of the Trans, Disability and Sapphic Knowledges (TDSK) Conference and Journal has received attention across Ontario and Canada for its inclusive model that seeks to make the event as accessible as possible while providing undergraduate students with an expansive platform to share their work.
I am honoured to be receiving the 2024 Centre for Global Disability Studies (CGDS) Undergraduate Award for Disability Studies Scholarship. Through the creation of the Trans, Disability, and Sapphic Knowledges Conference and Journal, the increasing number of courses focused on disability studies, and the growing intrigue by students, this field is expanding within the University of Toronto and I one day hope to see it as its own interdisciplinary department so that all students within the discipline can receive recognition for their dedication and scholarly contributions – Gabi
Image description: A white woman with long brown hair smiles at the camera. She is wearing glasses, a white top and a blue blazer.
The CGDS team is excited about the innovative work done by members of the undergraduate community that we have had the honour to support through the Undergraduate Awards in 2024-2025. We hope to continue funding vital projects and events in the future. Congratulations to our three award winners!
