Disability Salon Student Spotlight Series: Winter/Spring 2026 in Motion
The Disability Salon鈥檚 Student Spotlight Series continues this Winter/Spring 2026, beginning in February, highlighting the critical and creative research of disability studies students across stages of their journeys in SJE.
February Spotlight: Dr. Judith MacKinnon and Liz Winter
On February 12th, we gathered in the Air Space and virtually for the first Spotlight of the term. The session featured Presentations from recent SJE EdD graduate on their dissertation in practice and final oral exam (FOE) as well as SJE EdD student on their practicum and developing research. Dr. Maria Karmirs spoke as the respondent.
Dr. Judith MacKinnon presented on her EdD dissertation The Quest for Meaningful Employment: Persons with Disabilities Entry into the Federal Public Service as Part of the Disability Inclusion Action Plan, 2022. She explored how disability inclusion in Canada鈥檚 federal public service and examined how policy commitments can support a accessible and affirming workforce.
Liz Winter presented Deconstructing the 鈥楬uman鈥 in Human Rights: An Ongoing Practicum Experience. Speaking about her ongoing EdD practicum, she invited critical reflection on the category of the 鈥渉uman鈥 within rights discourse and how institutions must reconcile often competing rights through accommodation.
Upcoming in Winter/Spring 2026
There are still multiple opportunities to hear from SJE students this semester.
March Spotlight: Katherine Chen and Sara-Marni Hubbard
- Date & Time: Thursday, March 26th from 2:00鈥3:30 PM
- Location: OI 12鈥252 (Air Space) and Zoom link available upon request.
Presentations from current SJE MA student on their MA thesis in progress and PhD candidate on their dissertation writing in progress.
Katherine Chen, MA student
Re-encountering How Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is Perceived in the Educational Context.
Sara-Marni Hubbard, PhD student
A PhD in the Middle of Things: Work, a Pandemic, and Finding New Meaning in Legislative History.
Respondent: Dr. Efrat Gold
April Spotlight: Jose Miguel Esteban and Fiona Cheuk
- Date & Time: Thursday, April 23rd from 2:00鈥3:30 PM
- Location: OI 12鈥252 (Air Space) and Zoom link available upon request.
Presentations from current PhD candidates on the process and/or completion of their dissertation and final oral exam (FOE)
Jose Miguel Esteban
Reading and Writing Disability Choreographically: Critical-Creative Improvisational Encounters with the Teaching and Learning of Dance.
Fiona Cheuk
Dear Aphasia: Unsettling absences in the bureaucratic making of the includable disabled public policy subject.
Respondent: Dr. Loretta LeMaster
May Celebration & Open Sharing
- Date & Time: Friday, May 15th from 2:00鈥3:30 PM
- Location: OI 12鈥252 (Air Space) and Zoom link available upon request.
Current SJE students share some of their work and works in-progress from the 2025/2026 school year followed by YOU and YOUR work! Come and enjoy work from SJE students, below, and bring some of your work (excerpts from course papers, creative explorations, paper ideas, dance, music, theatre, sculpture, painting, and more!), too. This is a celebration and sharing of your work that continues to evolve :)
Sharing from:
- Cam Balda
- Justin Chen
- Charlie Dee
- Julianne Uzun
- 鈥nd YOU.
Access & Event Details
All events will include a Zoom e-transcript and window shades to adjust lighting. Together, we will create and cultivate ways of accessing one another and our work. There is ramp access to OISE from Bloor Street and from the St. George Subway station. The Dept. of SJE is located on the north side of the 12th floor, just off the elevators. A large accessible washroom is located near the elevators on the 12th floor. Masks available at all events.
Information and accessibility questions: disabilitysalon@gmail.com.
About the Disability Salon
Starting in the 2025/2026 academic year, the Disability Salon will extend its offerings to include a series of gatherings to spotlight, celebrate, and support the critical and creative research of disability studies students at different stages of their graduate school and scholarly journeys.
Created in the winter of 2021 by Dr. Devon Healey and PhD student Jose Miguel 鈥楳iggy鈥 Esteban, the Disability Salon became a space to navigate how to be together amidst a global pandemic through care and creativity. The work of disabled artists acted as a springboard to immerse ourselves in the creative practices and explorations of disability as we worked to discover where disability might move us. Through student-led creative workshops, film screenings, and the sharing of artistic work, we came together to create a space through which we all share in the doing of disability arts.
