ADVANCED TRAINING IN REHABILITATION RESEARCH AND DISABILITY POLICY TRAINING (AART)
This project provides advanced training in rehabilitation research outcomes and disability policy research. The project offers an individualized training program to accommodate the needs of various postdoctoral researchers and others with advanced degrees who hold leadership positions in rehabilitation research and related policy areas. Over the course of the five years, the project will train three one-year fellows and four two-year fellows. The project offers a set of core training experiences, including:
- advanced coursework
- project seminars
- participation in ongoing research and policy projects
- independent writing and research
Trainees are involved with training in one of two strands: rehabilitation outcomes research and disability policy research. Each strand includes 9-15 credits of coursework in advanced rehabilitation research or disability policy research (with a Certificate of Advanced Study in Disability Studies) and an internship at a rehabilitation or disability policy research project. Trainee capstone experiences include the preparation and submission of peer-reviewed articles, conference papers, or grant proposals as well as the preparation of research training packages for dissemination through the project.
Trainees for the last phase (2010-2012) of the project are now available. The first year supported three trainees for one year, and the second phase had supported two trainees for two years.
Trainees AY 2010-2012
Denise Nepveux earned her Ph.D. in Disability Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She served as a Lecturer and Assistant Professorof Disability Studies at York University, Toronto prior to joining the Center for Human Policy as an ARRT Fellow in August, 2010. Formerly a practicing occupational therapist, Denise is a Fulbright Scholar to Ghana and a Future of Minority Studies Mellon Fellow. Currently she is working on a book manuscript from her dissertation, which documents the life stories of women in Ghana’s disability movement. She is investigating how a postcolonial and critical development theory may contribute to a disability studies critique of recent Northern charitable and media projects on disability in Africa. She is collaborating with anthropologist Kathryn Geurts to explore changing leadership styles, advocacy strategies, and configurations of gender in Ghana’s disability movement. She is part of a Toronto team that is completing a participatory research project on knowledges and practices of sexual health with LGBTQ youth with intellectual disabilities, and she is lead investigator in a study of strategies to enhance youth engagement and self-determination in the Toronto Griffin Centre’s Compass Program.
Jeffrey Brune is Assistant Professor of History at Gallaudet University. After completing his dissertation at the University of Washington in cultural history, three years ago he shifted his focus to the history of disability and is currently working on two books. His new monograph project, which has received an early contract from Cambridge University Press, is Disability Stigma and the Modern American State. It examines how government disability programs heightened fears of malingering (fear of faking or exaggerating a disability), affected the treatment of disabled people, and increased the stigma of disability. He argues that this trend, ironically, has only worsened as disability policy has shifted toward civil rights during the past forty years. He is also co-editing an anthology, Blurring the Lines: Disability, Race, Gender and Passing in Modern America. The fellowship from 2011-2012 will enable hiim to focus on his writing.
Kate Kaul is a doctoral candidate in Social and Political Thought at York University, Toronto. At the Center for 2010-11, she will be completing her dissertation on disability studies and interdisciplinarity, subjectivity and experience, as well as beginning a project considering form and content in pedagogy and accessible design. She is interested in a broad range of critical theory, and has taught disability studies and writing at York University and at Ryerson University as an adjunct instructor.
TRAINEES AY 2008-2010
- Chris Bell was a disability studies scholar who joined the Center as an ARRT Fellow in August 2008. He was a doctoral candidate in English at Nottingham Trent University (Great Britain) specializing in cultural studies and use of rhetoric in disability discourse. He taught, traveled, and made numerous professional presentations in North America and Europe on issues related to cultural minority status, HIV/AIDS, LGBT, and disability studies. Sadly, Chris passed away in December, 2009.
- Dr. Youngoh Jung completed her doctoral studies in rehabilitation counselor education at the University of Texas – Austin in July 2008 and will join the Center as an ARRT Fellow in August 2008. Her dissertation research was a national study of rehabilitation services and outcomes for persons with HIV/AIDS, and concurrent interests include vocational services and human rights protections for persons with disabilities in South Korea.
THE FIRST YEAR TRAINEES (AY 2007-2008)
- Todd Reynolds completed his dissertation at the University of Oklahoma on individuals with disabilities and their experiences with extreme weather in 2007. Todd, who had multiple disabilities, served as an officer of the Disability Specialty Group (DSG) of the Association of American Geographers. After completing his postdoc, Todd was teaching a summer course on Geography of Disability coordinated by the Geography Department at Syracuse University, when sadly he passed away.
- Raven James from Lisle, NY (south of Cortland). Raven completed her dissertation on Sexual Self-Esteem and Women in Substance Abuse Treatment at Widener University and was involved in a qualitative research project examining the impact of participation in a LGBT-specific group in alcohol/drug treatment there as well. Raven worked on several projects including a project at Vera House concerning women with disabilities (http://www.verahouse.org/verahousearchives/07vawogrant.htm). Raven has accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Addiction Studies department at Governor’s State University in Illinois.
- Omolara Funmilola Akinpelu ("Funmi") received her Ph.D. in Guidance and Counseling with an emphasis on multicultural perspectives of hearing impairment at the University of Illorin, Nigeria. Funmi was recently a visiting scholar at York University and has a strong background in special education in Nigeria.