Dear UChicago Disability Studies community,

We are calling your attention to the call for applications from the Council on Advanced Studies workshops for the next academic year. As much as we enjoyed hosting events in the workshop, the student organizers for the current academic year – Zihao and Erika – cannot continue coordinating next year as both of us will be away from Chicago and enter our field trips in our fourth year. However, we’d love to provide support for whoever wishes to become the new student coordinator(s).

Here is a brief overview of some of the tasks student coordinator(s) will be expected to do if they take on the position:

• Writing and sending emails

• Keeping the website up-to-date and promoting the workshop

• Inviting guest presenters of your choice

• Accommodating the access needs of participants

• Organizing food catering for in-person workshop events

• Time commitment is one year

Thank you for being part of this growing community at UChicago. One of our goals with this space is to highlight the value of incorporating disability as an object or method in other fields. Over the past years as a Study Group or Workshop, we have provided a platform for participants to present on a range of disciplines, topics, and areas of study. In the coming years, one of our most immediate goals will be to continue to increase our size and the number of departments from which students are drawn. Our continued goal is to provide support to our student participants as they advance in their graduate careers. Given the relative paucity of work in disability studies at UChicago, the Workshop provides an important space for support and critique by peers and faculty.

If you are interested, please reach out to us (linzh@uchicago.edu; erikaprado@uchicago.edu) or our faculty advisor Michele Friedner (michelefriedner@uchicago.edu) who has gladly agreed to continue supervising the workshop next year. Feel free to pass this call for applications to anyone who is committed to continuing to provide such a space.

Best wishes,

Zihao & Erika