Rethinking Disability

Approximately 10%-15% of the world’s population is estimated to be disabled and this number is expected to rise in the next decades. How did disability become a global concern and how can the concept be understood in a multicultural world? This European Research Council-funded project seeks to answer these questions by undertaking the first study of the far-reaching implications of the United Nations International Year of Disabled Persons (IYDP, 1981) across the globe.

Together with Tom-Eric Krijger and two student trainees, Paul van Trigt set up a research project into religious coping strategies in past and current health crises. The interdisciplinary research project was accompanied by a short podcast series hosted and edited by Eline Pollaert.

This NWO project undertakes the first comprehensive study of the history of Het Dorp, a self-governing, accessible residential community for approximately 400 people with severe physical disabilities near Arnhem. It uncovers its national significance as well as its hitherto unrecognized international impact and it contributes to the preservation of its heritage.

A comics series about the Rethinking Disability project. View the comics here.

Hope E. Morgan, Sam de Schutter and Monika Baár supervised two research trainees in the project Dutch Missionaries and Deaf Education of Africa. Read more about this project here.

Together with Paul Bijl (KITLV) Monika Baar and Paul van Trigt supervised two research trainees in the project Diversifying the Collections. More information in this PDF.

In 2018 the Dutch Network Sources for Inclusive Citizenship launched the public disability history website DisPLACE.nl, sponsored by NWO and Driebit.

NWO-JSPS joint seminar, under the cooperation agreement between NWO and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

Victoria Nyst and Monika Baár supervised two research trainees in the project Effatha Dialects: Reconstructing the Emergence of an Endangered Dialect of Netherlands Sign Language. More about this project here.