LMU’s first ever Disability Studies conference centered around the theme of “A Neighborly Conversation,” inviting participants to take part in generative discussions across disciplines and fields. On February 21, 2025 over 250 participants embraced the spirit of neighborly conversation, coming together to learn more about faculty and student research, to join interactive workshops, engage with local organizations and more.
The conference, hosted by the Coelho Center for Disability Law, Policy, and Innovation, comes at an exciting moment for disability studies at LMU. Last fall, the Coelho Center officially moved to the Westchester campus, a move which provided the Center with increased opportunities to collaborate with various departments on issues of disability justice and access.
In fall 2025, the university will launch a new minor in disability studies. And recently, Mairead Sullivan, chair and associate professor of women’s and gender’s studies, won LMU’s first Mellon Foundation Grant, for “Habitable Worlds: A Disability, Ethics, and AI Think Tank” an interdisciplinary project which aims to foster critical conversations about the role of AI in shaping a more just and inclusive society.
The burgeoning interest in disability studies across campus was apparent throughout the conference day, as participants attended a variety of engaging and interdisciplinary panels on topics ranging from inclusive solutions in higher education, the future of accessible arts, autism studies, and more.
The conference also provided valuable opportunities for LMU faculty and students to collaboratively share their work and pedagogical insights. For example, Stella Oh, professor of women’s and gender’s studies, led a panel where she discussed representations of medicine in comics and graphic narratives. The session opened with a discussion of graphic medicine and several students from Oh’s classes then presented graphics that they created in class.
Additionally, the conference included a productive collaboration with UCLA, another Los Angeles university with a strong intellectual community around disability studies. Juliann Anesi, an assistant professor of gender studies at UCLA, presented a conference keynote entitled “Willful Inclusion and Disability Activism: Lessons from Oceania.” Many members of the UCLA community were in attendance and took part in collaborative discussions with LMU community members and others, further cementing the conference as a successful event rooted in neighborly conversations.
