Past Event

Mapping Eugenic, Colonial, and Crip Desires in Higher Education

In this talk, I discuss the eugenic and colonial histories that inform contemporary policies and practices in higher education that shape diversely positioned students’ lives. In particular, I critically explore international students’ experiences of distress as one element of a growing global education assemblage that includes multi-national corporations, educational institutions, government agencies, and the rise of psy technologies such as mental health apps and computer games. In addition to mapping the colonial and eugenic desires in this assemblage, I also describe students’ crip desires with faculty, peers, and technology that reimagines access as an intimate, relational, and interdependent process. I conclude by briefly discussing my Fat Studies-focused research and ongoing and future program of research.

Bio:

Fady Shanouda (he/him) is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at City, University of London. His research examines the connections between international students’ distress and the Western university as a key site for the production and naturalization of colonialism. His scholarly contributions lie at the theoretical and pedagogical intersections of Disability, Mad, and Fat Studies and include socio-historical examinations that surface the interconnections of colonialism, racism, ableism, sanism, misogyny, and queer- and transphobia. He has published scholarly articles on disability/mad-related issues in higher education, Canadian disability history, the anti-fat bias in medicine, and community-based learning. Dr. Shanouda is committed to research that simultaneously impacts academic thought and individuals in the community. To achieve this goal, he created and hosted the podcast “Disability Saves the World,” which invites members of the disability, mad, fat community to speak on their work and how they envision disability thought, activism, and art can save the world.

This talk will have ASL interpretation, and a recording will be provided afterwards by request.