This past year was filled with professional significance.
Along with Aimi Hamraie & Kevin Gotkin, I was named as a United States Artist Fellow in Media. This award is for our work practicing access as a creative, world-changing phenomenon that interrogates white and nondisabled design and media. We create open-access participation protocols, curating experiences of access making in which collaboration itself is an artistic practice.
Read more about the award: https://www.unitedstatesartists.org/fellow/critical-design-lab
Additionally, as a co-curator (with Aimie Hamraie and Cassandra Hartblay, it was amazing to see #CripRitual, an exhibition of artworks across 2 galleries in Toronto, finally open after multiple postponements due to the pandemic. We held 7 live artist events, talks & workshops, and gave 8 curator talks to multiple, varied audiences.
Read about the exhibition, see the artists’ work, and learn more at our archival website: https://cripritual.com
I was interviewed for multiple media pieces, though the one that stood out the most was as a guest on a podcast series, Data Dialogues, where Angela Eaton, OEDP’s Director of Data Inclusion interviewed me & Daphne Frias for episodes 4, 5, & 6:
#4: Climate Change is a Disabling Event (Daphne)
#5: Interdependence for Environmental Justice Design (Jarah)
#6: Averaged-out Data = Averaged-Out People (Daphne & Jarah together)
Take a listen, or read the transcript & show notes here: http://bit.ly/3s8rk2
This Fall, I was a participant in a number of academic & policy conferences and workshops. Two stand out:
One workshop was to rethink how metadata could provide better access for disabled people, and is part of a larger project with Dene Grigar’s Electronic Literature Lab’s The NEXT. My role was to begin articulating a schema to first create accessible pre–downloading/viewing information. This information is the first step to provide expectations of the experience.
Read more about it: https://trianglesci.org/2022/07/27/a-post-pandemic-reckoning-improving-metadata-for-better-accessibility-to-scholarly-archives-for-people-with-disabilities
Additionally, I recently was part of a fantastic panel on Disability In Space at the Space Education and Strategic Applications Virtual Conference with Lauryn Lee Hallet, Erika Nesvold, and Damien Williams. We talked about space policy and training, and how disabled people are more suited to space travel.
See a recording of the panel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA1a9zRi5y0&feature=youtu.be
And finally, I resigned from my position at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as of December 2022. While I love teaching (and my students are incredible people who are doing strong, thoughtful, and creative work), I am taking some time to continue working on some exciting projects. Stay tuned!