Beyond Ableism Professional Development Series: Student Panel
The Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusive Excellence and Belonging (DEIB) values student perspectives. DEIB also believes in transparency, along with consistent reflexivity, as a way to improve campus climate. Toward these ends, the link above includes perspectives from Penn State Abington students. These quotes were garnered from sessions where students thought with faculty and staff about how schools in general, and Abington specifically, could engender and maintain practices to make classrooms and campuses more accessible for students with disabilities. Since PSU Abington takes students' voices seriously, we have already begun to implement some of the suggestions and will continue to think with students as we work toward improving our inclusive policies, practices, and pedagogies. Finally, this is a living document. DEIB encourages students to contact the Director of DEIB with further thoughts as they arise.
Program Specific Resources
This link includes an amalgamation of resources collected by various programs available at Abington. The purpose of this page is to document how disciplines across the University intersect with questions of disabilities through a variety of resources, from books and articles to videos and art exhibits. This is a living document, so please feel free to visit this page as it grows and/or to contact the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusive Excellence to contribute to it.
Deconstructing Ableism at Abington: A Conversation with Chavonne Campbell
Chavonne Campbell is the Student Disability Resources Coordinator at Penn State Abington. She is a graduate of West Chester University with a B.A. in Psychology, a Minor in Sociology, and also a Master of Science in Social Work. Chavonne has had over 20 years of experience in Social Service and Education working with individuals across the lifespan from various cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds and so forth.
Deconstructing Ableism in Institutions: A Conversation with Dr. Nirmala Erevelles
Dr. Nirmala Erevelles (she/her) is a nationally recognized professor of social and cultural studies in education. Her teaching and research interests lie in the areas of disability studies, critical race theory, transnational feminism, sociology of education, and postcolonial studies. Specifically, her research focuses on the unruly, messy, unpredictable and taboo body – a habitual outcast in educational (and social) contexts. In this video, Dr. Erevelles discusses some of the ideas that she feels are critical to interrupting ableist norms and values to create more accessible, welcoming campus communities.
2023 Series: Beyond Ableism: Encouraging Everyday Conversations about Practical Justice
During the Spring 2023 semester, DEIB offered a 3-part professional development series focused on dismantling ableism. The purpose of this series was to think with faculty and staff about how ableism exists across sociopolitical and cultural contexts. Participants used dialogues that emerge from these conversations to consider how the PSU Abington community might deconstruct ableist norms and values to help make our campus a more accessible and welcoming place for all people. This professional development is considered the first note in a larger playlist on thinking seriously about these issues. Keep checking back across the DEIB pages to see how dialogues on disabilities become normalized in our everyday practices and policies at PSU Abington.