Spread the WoRD’s keynote address will feature DePaul MA in Writing program alumna Melanie Yergeau, Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan.
Her talk, titled Disability Hactivism, discusses the history of the term “hacking,” positing its problematic relationship to identity construction, particularly concerning disability and transgressive activism.
If you haven’t already, click here to RSVP for the conference and talk on Saturday, May 11th.
Disability Hactivism
Hacking is a many-storied concept, with significations ranging from criminal activity to counter-cultural identity to transgressive activism. Within academic contexts, teacher-scholars have reclaimed and re-purposed hacking as a means of reinventing classroom spaces — virtually, physically, rhetorically, and ideologically. This presentation explores not only what it means to “hack the classroom,” but also asks the following: What bodies does hacking-as-concept center? Using a disability studies framework, she argues that hacking has a disability-imbued history, one that invokes a problematic emphasis.