The Project of Ableism

Abstract

Feminist Rosemary Tong (1999) long ago alluded to the profound possibilities of using critical disability studies theory to re-comprehend and re-spatialise the landscape of thinking about race and gender as sites of signification. This Chapter presents a preliminary conversation in the emergent field of studies in ableism and desires to not only problematise but refuse the notion of able(ness). Our attention is on ableism’s production and performance. Such an exploratory work is indebted to conversations already commenced by Campbell (2008), Hughes (2007) and Overboe (1999, 2007).