On January 19th, 2023, Dr. Adan Jerreat-Poole (Communication Arts) was a speaker at the 6-part “DS Bytes: A Lunchtime Speaker Series” where they discussed Glitch Feminism, disability, and technology.
Jerreat-Poole's talk focused on the inclusion of the crip community, or those who experience any form of disability, in “Glitch Feminism," a lens which grew out of the societal tendency to view human shortfalls as glitches. “Glitch Feminism” is then defined by Jerreat-Poole as a “reclaiming and celebration of bodies that fall outside the hegemonic norm,” breaking the binaries that dictate the status quo.
Jerreat-Poole also notes that society also glitches which end up hurting or killing people, or creating barriers to access and equal participation. However, Jerreat-Poole says that despite these shortfalls, we all continue to exist, underscoring the need for digital communities that are “sick, crip, mad, disabled, neurodivergent, feminist, and queer.”
To learn more about the inclusion of disability in digital spaces, you can read about it in Dr. Adan Jerreat-Poole's 2020 PhD thesis, Bad Avatar: Mad/Crip Digital Identity Play.
For a recording of Adan’s talk, please visit the Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship’s website.
Check out McMaster’s Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship’s LibCal to register for any future talks!