DFG Conference: Relatives of People with Disabilities. Interdisciplinary Perspectives

This conference aims to be a pioneer in examining the role that relatives play and could play in the development, maintenance and promotion of sustainable social support structures from an interdisciplinary perspective.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted in 2006, calls on the signatory nations to build and strengthen structures that allow full participation of people with disabilities in the society. It also directs the nations to adopt policies that aim at providing equal opportunities for people with disabilities on one hand, while reducing stigmatisation and preventing discrimination on the other. The role that the family members and relatives can play in fostering greater inclusivity in the society has received insufficient focus and attention. It has not been a part of mainstream academic research and has only been studied sporadically and within disciplinary boundaries. Research focusing on social inequality has also largely overlooked relatives of people with disabilities.

The central premise of the conference is that relatives can be both: a source of support and an obstacle to greater social participation of persons with disabilities. It depends on the context if they reduce stigmatisation and foster inclusion or, on the contrary, serve as an instrument of coercive social normalisation. Relatives of people with disabilities have their own share of needs and problems due to disability that arise from their proximity to a disabled individual. Consequently, this limits the actionable options for their own life.

Relatives can also experience the consequences of disability such as stigmatisation, exclusion and discrimination, i.e. experiences of social inequality. They, however, are assigned as ‘non-disabled’ in society and such a classification tends to invisibilize their problems. The planned conference is dedicated to exploring these problems with an interdisciplinary approach. It seeks to inquire about the necessity of a new category of exclusion and social hierarchisation: The “co-disabled”.

The conference analyses fictional and factual texts and contexts. It is an attempt to examine and enlist the factors that inspire the relatives to either act as supporters or as hindrance for people with disabilities.

The discussions will be guided by the following questions:

• Which are the images of relatives that already exist?
• In which media (not just literature, social media but also purely informative texts) do they exist? How does the medium shape the understanding of them?
• Which forms of activism do relativesdevelop and employ across cultures?
• How do relatives articulate their own needs? How aligned or not are these with those of people with disabilities associated with them?
• How well are relatives integrated into a socially supportive environment?

The conference aims to outline a critical (synchronic and diachronic) description of the self and external representation of relatives of people with disabilities and their role in the interaction between people with and without disabilities. The presentations aim to be broad in their scope with an objective of creating joint research perspectives.

The entire conference will be held in English.

Poster of the conference

As part of the conference, a photo exhibition by Klaus Heymach (Berlin) will take place in the foyer of the University Library from 26 November to 8 December 2024. In addition, a vernissage will take place on 28 November 2024 at 17:30. The vernissage is free of charge.

Information about the photo exhibition and the poster for the vernissage can be found here: Curatorial note on the ‘Wunschkind photo exhibition’ / Poster for the vernissage

Principal Investigator(s) at the University	Prof. Dr. Susanne Hartwig (Lehrstuhl für Romanische Literaturen und Kulturen)
Project period	21.05.2025 - 23.05.2025
Source of funding	DFG - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Projektnummer	544728723