UMaine Hosts Interdisciplinary Disability Studies Celebration of Achievement
Contact: Sandra Horne, (207) 581-1236
ORONO – Ten University of Maine undergraduates recently were recognized for successfully completing a 24-credit concentration in interdisciplinary disability studies during a ceremony at the Wells Conference Center.
Christa L. Carlson, elementary education major, delivered the student address. Lu Zeph, director of the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies, welcomed the students and invited guests. Elizabeth DePoy, coordinator and professor of interdisciplinary disability studies, and Stephen Gilson, professor of interdisciplinary disability studies, made remarks and presented the concentration certificates and stoles.
The interdisciplinary disability studies curriculum, administered through the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies, provides students with a means to explore disability within the larger context of diversity and human rights, and to examine scholarship, practice and policy related to persons with disabilities.
The students honored at the celebration of achievement have mastered complex and diverse theories of disability. Particular emphasis is placed on promoting equality of opportunity and full access and participation in all areas of daily life, and in creatively fashioning environments to fit the full range of human variation.
Students who enroll in the interdisciplinary disability studies courses represent majors from all colleges, schools and departments throughout the university, and apply their learning to their individual disciplines, interests and lives outside of the academic environment.