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Abstract

Comment from the Field Disability and Disciplines 2017, Liverpool Hope University Owen Barden Liverpool Hope University Disability and Disciplines 2017, Liverpool Hope University The Centre for Culture and Disability Studies (CCDS) now holds its conference at Liverpool Hope University every two years. In 2017 more than 100 delegates came from countries all over the globe, including Canada, Germany, Ireland, India, New Zealand, Poland, and Taiwan, as well as the UK and the US. Eighty-one papers were presented across twenty-nine panels, chaired by CCDS members such as Ana Bê, Marie Caslin, David Feeney, Manel Herat, Ella Houston, Erin Pritchard, and Irene Rose. Attended by all delegates were the three keynote and two plenary sessions. One of the plenary panels was given by Rod Michalko, Devon Healey, and Tanya Titchkosky (University of Toronto) on knowledge and disability simulation; the other showcased ongoing research conducted by myself, Ria Cheyne, and Claire Penketh as core CCDS members (Liverpool Hope University). The first of the keynote speakers was Robert McRuer (George Washington University), whose paper “Crip Times: Disability Politics in a Post-Truth Era,” gave a taste of his now-published new book. On the second day, Katherine RunswickCole (University of Sheffield) delivered an emotive opening presentation “Looking Back, Looking Forward: Re-Making Mothering Through Critical Disability Studies,” and in the concluding keynote session David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder (George Washington University) addressed posthumanism in “The Matter of Disability.” These keynotes and the plenary panels have been published on the CCDS YouTube channel. After the third CCDS Conference in 2015, a collective Comment from the Field was crowdsourced, an approach that helped to represent the spirit of community promoted and evident at the event. The exercise was repeated after the fourth conference, 5–6 July 2017, and in this Comment I share an edited sample of the voices of those delegates who offered a contribution about some of the panels. Attending the conference, for Kathryn Cowley (Liverpool Hope University), was an amazing experience. Writers, academics, and independent researchers Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies 12.3 (2018) ISSN 1757-6458 (print) 1757-6466 (online) © Liverpool University Press https://doi.org/10.3828/jlcds.2018.28