cassandra hartblay

Category: News

  • Forthcoming from Cornell University Press!

    Forthcoming from Cornell University Press!

    My second book, Access Vernaculars: Disability and Design in Contemporary Russia is in production for publication fall 2025 with Cornell University Press. What a road it’s been!

    Access Vernaculars observes that both disabled people and nondisabled people in Russia recognize and point out instances of poorly executed accessible design in the built environment. The book argues that the popular interest in images of failed accessibility ramps and other similar features circulating on the Russian internet in the 2010s can be understood as a general critique of the Russian state, pointing out hypocrisy in false façades of access, and practices therefore considered critiques of Russian ablenationalism. At the same time, the text traces how disabled people in one Russian city narrate their own experiences of navigating an environment rife with performative accessibility layered over pervasive inaccess and ableism. Through sustained ethnographic attention to the stories that disabled people tell about experiences of access and inaccess, Access Vernaculars examines local Russophone vocabularies that people with mobility impairments use to describe passage through the built environment. In addition to terms translated from global disability advocacy discourse, disabled interlocutors also used terms inherited from previous generations of Russophone political advocacy, that have been largely ignored as part of the lexicon of disability politics in contemporary Russia. The book calls for a critical global disability studies that contends with a de facto Euro-American hegemony in disability advocacy movements, and attends to the ways that vocabularies of disability access travel in friction, taking on dynamic and unexpected meanings in transnational sociopolitical contexts. Finally, the book asks how disability advocacy movements proceed in the context of ablenationalist cooptation. 

    View of a neighborhood in Petrozavodsk Russia, taken from above. 2013. Photo by Cassandra Hartblay.
  • Watch the virtual launch event for “Digital Selves”

    Watch the virtual launch event for “Digital Selves”

    In November 2021, the authors and editors of a special issue of the journal Digital Icons: Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media gathered online for a panel hosted by the Harriman Institute at Columbia University. A recording of the panel discussion is available on YouTube, and embedded below.

    The issue, “Digital Selves: Embodiment and Subjectivity in New Media Cultures in Eastern Europe and Eurasia,” is available in open access at digitalicons.org. It has been a pleasure to get to know the emerging scholars who contributed to this special issue as co-editor.

    Embedded YouTube video with captions, recorded Zoom panel.

  • Follow the Centre for Global Disability Studies Online!

    The Centre for Global Disability Studies at the University of Toronto will celebrate it’s first birthday this July, 2021. In the past year, we’ve been so lucky to assemble a community of faculty and graduate students at UofT. We also chartered our small grants program for UofT researchers and a group of our core lab members presented at the virtual Society for Disability Studies conference.

    Finally, we’ve launched a website, Twitter and Instagram, and begun planning our first event series (postponed til fall 2021 due to the CAUT censure of UofT).

    Follow us on these platforms to find out what is coming up during the next year at CGDS!

  • A new disability studies research community at UofT

    It’s been a strange year of working remotely, but in spite of everything – Zoom fatigue, postponed projects, an enduring palpable sense of loss in the absence of informal social interactions – something new has been growing and unfolding here at University of Toronto. So, this week, I’m really happy to debut the website of the new Centre for Global Disability Studies, a group that supports faculty, students and researchers doing justice-oriented disability studies with a transnational, anti-racist, anti-colonial approach across the three University of Toronto campuses.

    It’s been an slow and thoughtful process to collectively recognize the goals, vision, and mission of the group, and I’ve learned so much as it has come together through a year-long consultation process last academic year, and a building phase this academic year (read more about this in my letter from the director here).

    The new Centre offers a small grants program to UofT researchers, and will begin presenting public- and campus- facing events later this spring. We also hold biweekly lab core meetings, and offer RA-ships for graduate students. Check us out!

    The logo of the Centre for Global Disability Studies.
    A large blurry circle with two small bright red and pink circles overlapping.

  • Announcing the Centre for Global Disability Studies – and a job opportunity

    I am very happy to share that the University of Toronto Scarborough has funded a new initiative to create a Research Centre for Global Disability Studies. This new centre, CGDS for short, will serve as a vehicle to bring together faculty, graduate students, postdocs, and others conducting anti-ableist intersectional and interdisciplinary social science and humanities disability studies research from across the UofT campuses and broader community. I am lucky and humbled to be serving my colleagues across UofT as the first director for the new centre.

    Stay tuned for the announcement of the Centre’s small grants for UofT researchers in October 2020, and the launch of a website for the Centre in early 2021. As CGDS grows, we plan to develop a community advisory committee, offer support for researchers, and present campus programming that furthers the goal of fostering scholarship in service of transnational disability justice.

    At present, the Centre is in early stages of formation. We are lucky to have the support of the university administration in this endeavor, including the creation of a Research Centre Coordinator position to support the general operations of CGDS.

    Please join me in celebrating the creation of the new centre, and in sharing the opportunity to apply for this position! While the position is remote, it will likely be necessary for the candidate to be eligible to work in Canada.

    USW CASUAL POSITION 

    PART-TIME CASUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY 

    Research Centre Coordinator 

    Centre for Global Disability Studies (CGDS) 

    University of Toronto Scarborough 

    The Centre for Global Disability Studies has one position available for the period October 19, 2020 to February 26, 2021. This position is governed by the Collective Agreement for the “Casual” Bargaining Unit between the Governing Council of the University of Toronto and the United Steel Workers (USW). 

    Posting Date:           September 24, 2020 

    Salary:               $29.44 per hour + 4% vacation on all hours worked. 

    Hours of Work:       14.5 hours per week 

    To be mutually agreed upon, flexibility in scheduling of hours is required in order to meet operational needs. This position is primarily remote.  

    Education: University degree in an arts and humanities or social science field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.Educational background in critical disability studies, and/or other equity and social justice related academic fields an asset. 

    Experience: Experience with academic research, with the administration of academic units, or with equity and social justice advocacy projects. Proficient with computer programs such as Microsoft 365 (Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel), Zoom, Adobe Acrobat, WordPress, and shared cloud-based filing systems are essential. Experience with software and standards for creating and using accessible texts and media, and knowledge of disability access practices is an asset. Must have financial experience processing expenses and reconciling accounts. Experience with content management for websites and/or social media OR experience learning new software platforms are desirable. The ideal candidate will have lived experience with disability and/or previous experience working in accessibility, but neither is strictly required.The ideal candidate will have lived experience with disability and/or previous experience working in accessibility, but neither is strictly required.  

    Skill: Must have excellent interpersonal, communication, and organizational skills. Must be a self-starter.  

    Other: Knowledge of or experience with University of Toronto policy is an asset.  Must be a strong team-player and committed to quality service. Must be prepared to work remotely; no on-campus work is planned for the remainder of the 2020 calendar year.   

    Please submit a covering letter and resume including references, no later than October 9, 2020 by 5:00 p.m. to Professor Cassandra Hartblay, Director, at cgds.utsc@utoronto.ca, with the phrase Research Centre Coordinator in the email subject line.  

    The University of Toronto is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from racialized persons / persons of colour, women, Indigenous / Aboriginal People of North America, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ persons, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas. 

  • #CripRitual is coming this winter!

    UPDATE: This project has been postponed by one year due to the pandemic, and the exhibition will now take place in Winter 2021.

    This January, I, along with my collaborating co-curators in the Critical Design Lab, Aimi Hamraie and Jarah Moesch, will team up with Tangled Art+Disability and the Doris McCarthy Gallery at the University of Toronto Scarborough to bring a new art exhibition on the theme of Crip Ritual to life. The show will be a joint exhibition spanning the two Toronto, Ontario galleries simultaneously, while also available remotely as a digital exhibition on the #CripRitual project website. Featuring works by artists from the Canada, the US, and Russia, the project considers the role of ritual in crip strategies that bring disability culture and community into being and support access, self care, and advocacy in an ableist world.

    Stay tuned for opportunities to engage with this exhibition!

  • Talking Disability Art with Eliza Chandler, Lindsey Fisher, and Sean Lee

    Awhile back I got a chance to sit down with Eliza Chandler, Lindsey Fisher, and Sean Lee and record our conversation for an episode of Contra*, the podcast of the Critical Design Lab.

    I’ve been thinking for awhile now about how anti-ableist praxis requires thinking and working to make the spaces of knowledge production more accessible, and in this episode, I ask Eliza, Lindsey, and Sean about some of the unique access practices that they devised for the 2019 conference Cripping the Arts. We hear about the amazing access guides they created, and how they integrate accessibility into their curatorial practices more generally.

    You can find and subscribe to Contra* on Apple podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Play, or you can listen to individual episodes and find show notes and full transcripts on the podcast webpage. You can also follow the Critical Design Lab on Twitter and Instagram for more updates.

  • Book available for pre-order!

    My first book, I Was Never Alone or Oporniki: An Ethnographic Play on Disability in Russia, is now available for pre-order from University of Toronto Press, Amazon.com, and Amazon.ca. The book is scheduled for release in May 2020 [edited to note publisher’s delay] November 2020.

    book cover shows book title "I was never alone or oporniki: an ethnographic play on disability in Russia: Cassandra Hartblay" in grey, yellow, and red text inside of a yellow circle reminiscent of a spotlight on an off-white background over a partial view of theatre seats which are painted in a way that some are fading into the background.

    I Was Never Alone or Oporniki presents an original ethnographic stage play, based on fieldwork conducted in Russia with adults with disabilities. The core of the work is the script of the play itself, which is accompanied by a description of the script development process, from the research in the field to rehearsals for public performances. In a supporting essay, the author argues that both ethnography and theatre can be understood as designs for being together in unusual ways, and that both practices can be deepened by recognizing the vibrant social impact of interdependency animated by vulnerability, as identified by disability theorists and activists. (more…)

  • Contra* podcast

    Contra* podcast

    Have you subscribed to Contra*?!?

    Contra* is a podcast about disability, design justice, and the lifeworld created by Aimi Hamraie and produced by the contributors to the Critical Design Lab, a multi-institution project.

    It’s been an exciting year watching this project grow in my role as contributor to CDL and the podcast, and with our first season complete and interviews and plans for season two underway, this summer… as podcast feeds thin out… I’m looking back and thinking again with all of the amazing thinkers featured on the first season.

    This is an exciting space to hear Aimi and our other contributors in conversation with podcast guests talking through problems from designing access to creating critical artworks like Mimi Khuc’s “Open in Emergency.” Check out the *full transcripts* from interviews with Sara Hendren, Marcel LaFlamme, Moya Bailey & Vilissa Thomson, Alice Wong, Robert McRuer, and more on the podcast website, or search for the podcast and subscribe via Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, or Google Play.

    Contra Logo Master

  • Toronto, Hello!

    This summer brings the exciting news of a big move. As I pack up my things at Yale and house hunt in Toronto, I’m very glad to say that as of June 1, I am joining the faculty at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

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    In my new role as Assistant Professor with a cross-appointment between Anthropology and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Health Studies, I will be teaching courses and developing programming in health humanities, disability studies, and disability anthropology. Check out my upcoming courses here. And, I’m lucky to be joining the exciting scene in the UTSC Health Humanities Scope Lab.

    It’s been an amazing year at Yale, with two big highlights – a staging of my ethnographic play and the Annual Soyuz Conference on Postsocialist Cultural Studies – to look back on. But most of all, I will carry forward the small moments: the deep generosities of those I’ve met at Yale, the intellectual camaraderie developed over happy hour drinks, food truck lunches, department gatherings, working group meetings, and social media posts. These relationships feel less like something to be left behind than like seeds planted that will grow into other forms in the years to come.

    Here’s to next chapters!

    Animated GIF of a book with pages turning in the wind, on grass, backlit by sun