Disability Studies MA

Home
United Kingdom
Liverpool
Disability Studies MA

This Disability Studies MA course is aligned with the CCDS and as such has a particular focus on cultural representations of disability.

Disability Studies is a relatively new but rapidly growing academic discipline, as illustrated by the international proliferation of courses, events, networks, journals, book series, monographs, edited collections, and so on. Though drawing on this progress substantially, the Disability Studies MA at Liverpool Hope University differs from similar programmes insofar as it places particular emphasis on cultural issues. We are not only interested in the policies, prejudices, and professions around disability, but also its representation in literature, media, film, art, and so on. Liverpool Hope University is well suited as a host for this programme. The regional, national, and international profile of the programme is enhanced greatly by the Centre for Culture & Disability Studies–and, by extension, the Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, the on-going seminar series, the International Network of Literary & Cultural Disability Scholars, the Literary Disability Studies book series, and an enthusiastic team of widely-published tutors. The modules included are Critical Disability Theory; Disability and Professional Practice; Modelling Disability; Disability and Disciplines; Research Methods; and a Dissertation. For more information, please contact the course leader Dr David Bolt, Centre for Culture and Disability Studies, Liverpool Hope University.

18/11/2025

Damien Maguire, Associate Dean of External Engagement, interviews David Bolt as Professor of Disability Studies and Interdisciplinarity at Liverpool Hope University. One focus of the conversation is the Disability Studies MA that was launched in 2013 and enrolls students in January and September.

Damien Maguire, Associate Dean of External Engagement, interviews David Bolt as Professor of Disability Studies and Interdisciplinarity at Liverpool Hope Uni...

05/11/2025

Cultural Stations of Disability: A Moment in Discourse

Now available to pre-order with discount, new book edited by David Bolt, including an afterword by Brenda Jo Brueggemann, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, and Georgina Kleege.

In the disability community, which can have multiple meanings in itself, we often experience poignant moments in sociocultural discourse. Our pathways to knowledge and understanding of identity are defined by life’s landmarks, many of which resonate with what thereby become formative figures or artefacts. This mapping of key moments involves recognising, and reflecting upon, cultural stations of disability.

More than being demarcations of disruption to the normative social order, cultural stations of disability sometimes pertain to its very epitome. They hold something of a moment in discourse with which identification is paramount but variously emotive. They may capture feelings of liberation to which we joyfully return, difficult memories that we revisit to ponder, or the nadir of modernity from which we can only hope to learn.

In this new edited volume, the international gathering of contributors finds and defines dozens of cultural stations of disability in music, art, film, television programs, literature, sitcom, activism, sport, performance, organisations, places, and events.

Valid until the end of the year, the 30% Routledge discount code is: ADC25

For more information and to order a copy: https://www.routledge.com/Cultural-Stations-of-Disability-A-Moment-in-Discourse/Bolt/p/book/9781032870984

This edited volume is part of the Autocritical Disability Studies book series.

In the disability community, which can have multiple meanings in itself, we often experience poignant moments in sociocultural discourse. Our pathways to knowledge and understanding of identity are defined by life’s landmarks, many of which resonate with what thereby become formative figures or ar...

16/09/2025

Disability Studies MA

Programme Leader, Prof David Bolt.

This programme is face to face, full-time or part-time, and available to September and February starters.

The programme is aligned with the Centre for Culture and Disability Studies and taught by tutors in the Faculty of Education and Social Science, Liverpool Hope University.

Disability Studies is a relatively new but rapidly growing academic discipline, as illustrated by the international proliferation of courses, events, networks, journals, book series, monographs, and edited collections. Though drawing on this progress substantially, the Disability Studies MA at Liverpool Hope University differs from similar programmes insofar as it places particular emphasis on cultural issues. We are not only interested in the policies, prejudices, and professions around disability, but also its representation in literature, media, film, art, and so on.

Liverpool Hope University is well suited as a host for this programme. The regional, national, and international profile of the programme is enhanced greatly by the Centre for Culture & Disability Studies–and, by extension, the Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, the seminars and conferences, the YouTube channel, the Literary Disability Studies book series, the Autocritical Disability Studies book series, the Cultural History of Disability multi-volume project, the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Disability Studies, and an enthusiastic team of widely-published tutors.

The modules included are Critical Disability Theory; Disability and Professional Practice; Modelling Disability; Disability and Disciplines; Research Methods; and a Dissertation.

The taught elements of the course include, for full-time students, two evenings per week (Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6-9pm), and for part-time students, one evening per week. These classes are held at Hope Park.

For information on how to apply:

04/09/2025

The Playground Model of Disability: Dis/honesty Tropes in Contemporary British Sociocultural Representation

New book by David Bolt – available with introductory discount

This book coins the term dis/honesty to define the moments in which dishonesty is invoked by disability, and vice versa. The concept is explored via a selection of contemporary British sociocultural representations – namely, short jokes, disability sitcom, soap opera, activist radio interviews, fictionalised observations, and the robotic positionality of Artificial Intelligence. The Playground Model of Disability will be of particular interest to readers in disability studies, as well as those in humour studies, radio studies, media studies, television studies, literary studies, cultural studies, inclusion studies, drama, sociology, and critical theory.

For more information: https://www.routledge.com/The-Playground-Model-of-Disability-DishonestyTropesinContemporaryBritishSocioculturalRepresentation/Bolt/p/book/9781041064923

For 20% discount use this code: 25AFLY3

More than being counter to what we must surely endeavour to consider the status quo of honesty, not to mention the pursuit of truth that should still be fundamental in academia and education more broadly, dishonesty involves deceit and thus victimisation, which is to say it tends to be used either a...

03/09/2025

Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies

Volume 19 Issue 3

Special Issue: Invitation to Dance: Performing Disability Politics through the Dancing Body

Guest Editors: Stefan Sunandan Honisch and Gili Hammer

JLCDS is available from Liverpool University Press, online and in print, to institutional and individual subscribers; it is indexed by Scopus and Web of Science; it is also part of the Project MUSE collection to which the links below point.

Research Articles
Invitation to Dance: Performing Disability Politics through the Dancing Body
Stefan Sunandan Honisch and Gili Hammer
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/968134

Say That Again: How Disability Makes Dance
Alice Sheppard
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/968135

Performing Paradox: Sparks of a Q***r Crip Dance Aesthetic
Julia Havard
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/968136

Gesture, Dance, and Learning Disability
Margaret Ames
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/968137

Expanding Relationships between Dance, Disability and Prostheses: A Close Reading of Cuckoo as an Example of the Aesthetics of Representation and New Artistic Expressions
Sarah Whatley
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/968138

Corporeal Lived Experience of COVID-19: Disability, Dance and Pandemic-Triggered Adaption
Kathryn Stamp
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/968139

Surfacing Stones, Clearing Airs: Dancing as Knowing in the History of Medicine
Shireen Hamza
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/968140

Comments from the field
The Politics of the Disabled Dancing Body
Ginger Lane
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/968141

Some Things That I, as a Non-Disabled Dancemaker, Have Learned Through Working with Disabled Dancers
Victoria Marks
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/968142

Book Reviews
A.J. Sass, Ellen Outside the Lines.
Thasfiya Alavi and Shubha Ranganathan
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/968144

Jim Hoerricks, No Place for Autism? Exploring the solitary forager hypothesis of autism in the light of place identity.
Krysia Waldock
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/105/article/968145

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.

22/07/2025

Now available to pre-order, Cultural Stations of Disability: A Moment in Discourse

Edited by Prof David Bolt, with an afterword by eminent US professors Brenda Jo Brueggemann, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, and Georgina Kleege, this new volume is of particular significance to Liverpool Hope University. The international gathering includes several colleagues, doctoral researchers, and graduates from the disability studies MA. Opening with artwork and a chapter by Prof Claire Penketh, the book contains contributions from Senior Lecturers Dr Ella Houston and Dr Erin Pritchard, as well as Dr Emma Swai, Frantzeska Zerva, and Marnie Mitchell.

In the disability community, which can have multiple meanings in itself, we often experience poignant moments in sociocultural discourse. Our pathways to knowledge and understanding of identity are defined by life’s landmarks, many of which resonate with what thereby become formative figures or artefacts. This mapping of key moments involves recognising, and reflecting upon, cultural stations of disability.

More than being demarcations of disruption to the normative social order, cultural stations of disability sometimes pertain to its very epitome. They hold something of a moment in discourse with which identification is paramount but variously emotive. They may capture feelings of liberation to which we joyfully return, difficult memories that we revisit to ponder, or the nadir of modernity from which we can only hope to learn.

In this edited volume, the international gathering of contributors finds and defines dozens of cultural stations of disability in music, art, film, television programs, literature, sitcom, activism, sport, performance, organisations, places, and events.

This is the 9th volume in Prof Bolt’s Routledge book series, Autocritical Disability Studies. For more information:

Address

Liverpool Hope University, Taggart Avenue
Liverpool
L169JD

Website

http://ccds.hope.ac.uk/, http://www.hope.ac.uk/postgraduate/postgraduatecourses/disabilitystudiesma/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Disability Studies MA posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to Disability Studies MA:

Shortcuts

Want your practice to be the top-listed Clinic in Liverpool?