In October 2023, Dr. Ami Goulden and Dr. Stephanie Baird (School of Social Work, King’s University College, Western University) received the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) 2023 Disability Manuscript Award for their manuscript titled “Re-Imagining Neoliberal Ideologies in Social Work Education Using Critical Feminist and Disability Theories: A Phenomenological Autoethnographic Account” in Atlanta, Georgia.
Their manuscript expands the literature on critical feminist and disability theories by integrating crip theory and intersectionality to outline key theoretical ideas for social work education. After outlining their reflective process using a phenomenological autoethnographic approach, they drew upon their involvement as instructors of an individual and families social work practice at King’s University College, Western University to illustrate how they problematized and disrupted traditional bio-medicalized and ableist practice approaches by adopting an intersectional crip lens.
We must consider how theories and practice models are limiting for disabled people and whether they reinforce neoliberal-ableism and notions of compulsory able-bodiedness. In other words, is disability rendered ‘abnormal’ in the theory or practice model?
(Baird & Goulden, Forthcoming Spring 2024)
The manuscript will be published in a special issue of The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, titled Disability Justice in Social Work, in Spring 2024.