Thinking Affect within Critical Disability Studies

Disability Matters is a major six year pan-national programme of disability, health and science research, funded by a Wellcome Trust Discretionary Award. A key ambition of Disability Matters is to make disability the driving subject of research. Between 2023 and 2029, the programme is running a number of short and accessible Online Symposia.

In this symposia, three critical disability scholars from Spain (Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia) will address matters of affect that shape the lives of disabled people.

Andrea Garcia-Santesmases will analyse the sexuality and intimate lives of disabled people. Her presentation is entitled "The Intersection of Gender, Disability, and Sexuality: Challenging Ableist and Normative Codes".

Laura Sanmiquel-Molinero will explore how affect and Critical Disability Studies have shaped her work on adjustment to disability. The title of her presentation is "Adjustment to dis/ableism, affect and agency in clinical settings: a provocation?"

Finally, Javier Monforte will present a catchy typology to approach the intersection of disability and happiness. His work is entitled "Introducing DisHappiness: a typology on the intersection between disability and happiness"

A Zoom meeting link will be released by 9am on the 2nd October 2025.

RegIster for the event here.

Speakers

Andrea Garcia-Santesmases is an Associate Professor at the Department of Social Work at National Distance Education University (UNED, Spain). Her main lines or research are the intersections between gender and sexuality studies and critical disability studies. She has several publications in this field, last one the book “El cuerpo deseado: la conversación pendiente entre feminismo y anticapacitismo” (The desired body: the urgent conversation between feminism and anti-ableism).

Link to paper

Laura Sanmiquel-Molinero is a Juan de la Cierva post-doctoral research fellow at the Department of Social Psychology of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain). Her research focuses on the dialogue between Critical Disability Studies and traditional approaches to disability in Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology from an intersectional perspective. She has also participated in a research project on disability and sexual and reproductive rights funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science. She has authored several journal articles regarding dis/ableism and its intersections.

Link to paper

Javier Monforte is an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Education and Sport at the University of València, Spain. His research takes a qualitative approach and focuses on the meanings and experiences of physical activity in disabled people. He received the ECR award by the International Society of Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise and the Young Investigator award by the European Federation of Adapted Physical Activity. he has authored several book chapters and journal articles on critical and posthuman disability studies.

Link to paper

Time zones

The online Symposium will run 12 noon - 1pm (Sheffield/UK time).

Disability Matters is a pan-national programme and welcomes attendees from all over the world. When attending online symposia, please check the time according to your local time zone as it may differ from what is listed on the event page.

Access

Written copies of the speaker’s talks will be made available before the session at Disability Matters Scholarship Collection.

Attendees are welcome to join or leave the event at any time. Participating in the Q&A and discussion is optional. A recording of the talk will be available after the event.

If you have other specific access needs or have further questions about access, please get in touch via disabilitymatters@sheffield.ac.uk