The VHI Launches Five-Year Initiative, 'Disability and Knowledge'

The Von Hügel Institute for Critical Catholic Inquiry convened in Rome 20th - 21st March to launch five-year research initiative, 'Disability and Knowledge'.

Disability is part of being human; yet too often people with disability still experience stigmatisation, discrimination and isolation. This collaboration between the Von Hügel Institute, Lyn’s House Cambridge, the University of Notre Dame Rome Global Gateway, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, and L'Arche Italy brought together participants from among the disability community, academia, civic and religious institutions, carers, and artists to explore the nature of knowledge in the context of disability, and to expand understanding of the forms which human knowledge takes. 

The project explores expansively the nature of knowledge from the perspective of disability studies and disability experiences, with an ultimate goal to develop new epistemic and narrative resources for shared understanding, encounter, and belonging, and towards a better, more inclusive future. The March 2023 Rome workshop convened an interdisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners with the aim of 1) developing the project’s conceptual framework; 2) raising a series of questions which the framework poses; and 3) creating an interactive space for disability experiences to be heard and reflected upon.

To focus the research conversation, the workshop committee organised reflection on disability and knowledge around the concept of “relationality.”

The panels on the first day of the conference featured a practice-based look at relationality through conservation with people who live and work in disability communities. The first panel, a round table discussion, invited reflection on the theme from participants whose work bridges the worlds of disability communities and University settings. The second panel presented a documentary film about a public bicycling project undertaken by a group of friends with and without disabilities, tackling the question: through a relational approach, with disability at its centre, how might we change the way we think about and within philosophy, politics and theology, as well as the kinds of knowledge, public policies and recommendations produced within them? 

Through the production of academic publications, pastoral materials, community engagement and arts initiatives, the project will generate resources for scholars and practitioners for the greater participation and leadership by people with disability in academia, religion and society.

To view the full program for the project's launch, click here.