Imagined Futures and Politics of Disability Studies in Central and Eastern Europe

This roundtable features five disability studies scholars and activists, Kamila Albin, Kateřina Kolářová, Gabor Petri, Magda(lena) Szarota, and Darja Zaviršek, from different Eastern and Central Eastern European countries: Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovenia. It provides a window into regional understandings, challenges, and tensions vis-à-vis Russian imperialism and Western and Anglophone disability studies research which often focuses on Russia as representative of the region. The invited scholars approach Central and Eastern European disability studies as a part of global research on disability and pose questions about its importance both within the region and for the discipline as a whole. The topics they raise, among others, is the accountability of the academic discipline towards disability rights movements in Eastern Europe, war in Ukraine and its relation to disability rights, and democratic backsliding both in the region and globally. The titular “imagined futures” of disability studies in the region involve continuing investment in accessibility politics, collaboration with different stakeholders, including those outside academy and disability rights movement, engagement with the UN CRPD as well as rethinking relations with non-human actors and a move towards eco-crip relationality.